Daniel Drezner writes:
danieldrezner.com :: Daniel W. Drezner :: The dogs that don't bark in international relations: Newspapers, media outlets -- and, because we feed off them, blogs -- tend to focus on the violent hot spots in international affairs. This is entirely appropriate -- but occasionally, it's worth stepping back and remembering that there are parts of the globe where everyone has expected and predicted things to go "BOOM!" -- and yet, in fact, conditions have improved.
Yes. Let us give thanks that the most brutal and blood-soaked border in the world is quiet--a border inhabited on both sides by those bloodthirsty peoples who have been numbers one and two in terms of the most effective killers of foreigners for centuries: the Germans and the French.
It is now 59 years and 9 months since an army crossed the Rhine River bearing fire and sword. This is the longest period of peace on the Rhine since the second century B.C.E., before the Cimbri and the Teutones appeared to challenge the armies of the consul Gaius Marius in the Rhone Valley.
Posted by DeLong at November 12, 2004 12:33 PM | TrackBackDeath Comes Knocking
By BOB HERBERT
The e-mail to John Witmer from his daughter Michelle came on Father's Day in 2003.
"Dear Daddy," it said, "Happy Father's Day. I love you so much and you can't imagine how often I think of you. I hope you have lots of fun today and that the weather is lovely.
"We had a briefing telling us to prepare ourselves as best as possible for what lies ahead. Things like children running out in front of vehicles to try and get them to stop. We have to prepare ourselves to hit people because stopping is not an option. I guess every convoy that's gone up north so far has taken fire or been ambushed. The question of whether we will or not is not even really a question, more like a guess as to when.
"These things, as you can imagine, are a lot to take in. I'm doing my best. I've been a little depressed lately but I'm trying to keep my chin up. I really miss home. Tomorrow will be exactly three months since I got deployed. Wow, time does not fly. Jeez, this letter wasn't supposed to be down. Sorry. Back to the point. Happy Father's Day. I love and miss you so much.
"Love, Shelly."
Specia list Michelle Witmer of New Berlin, Wis., survived for nearly 10 more slowly moving months in Iraq, until she was cut down by enemy fire in Baghdad last April 9. She was 20 when she died.
The e-mail was read on camera by her dad in an extremely moving documentary, "Last Letters Home," which was jointly produced by The New York Times and HBO. It premiered on HBO last night.
In the hourlong program, grieving relatives read aloud from letters, cards and e-mail sent by troops who died in Iraq, and comment on the ways they've been affected by the loss of their loved ones. The program is not about pro-war or anti-war sentiments, or grand geopolitical visions. It just gives us a glimpse of the searing personal toll that is inevitable in war. I imagine it would be difficult for anyone to see it and not take the war more seriously. Anything that imposes such unmitigated agony should give us pause.
Second Lt. Leonard Cowherd III of Culpeper, Va., commented in his last letter to his wife, Sarah, about how young so many of the soldiers were, which was interesting because he was only 22 himself. He wrote:
"Some of these guys out here, Sarah, they're just kids. I'm not that old myself but I couldn't imagine going through the experiences these guys are going through at the age of 18, 19 and 20. If you saw them walking down the street you would think that they belonged in an arcade or at a movie theater doing stuff kids do. Not putting their lives on the line every second of every day."
The Cowherds were married last year and spent only a few months together before Lieutenant Cowherd was shipped to Iraq. He was shot to death in Karbala in May.
A theme that runs through the documentary is the overwhelming sense of dread that grips relatives when their doors are knocked upon by soldiers or marines in dress uniforms.
"It was the lightest tap on my door that I've ever heard in my life," said Paula Zasadny, the mother of Specia list Holly McGeogh, a 19-year-old who was killed by a bomb in Kirkuk.
"I opened the door and I seen the man in the dress greens and I knew. I immediately knew. But I thought that if, as long as I didn't let him in, he couldn't tell me. And then it - none of that would've happened. So he kept saying, 'Ma'am, I need to come in.' And I kept telling him, 'I'm sorry, but you can't come in.' "
What is the ratio of Iraqi dead to foreign invader dead? Yanks and brits should be thoroughly ashamed!
Posted by: Big Al at November 12, 2004 01:12 PM1683. We have once again found that the undefeatable oriental army is an illusion shattered by experienced troops. As for the Rhein being so important- history and economics dictate that you must be able to feed an army- and the Rheingau has always produced excellent crops...
Posted by: AllenM at November 12, 2004 01:44 PMActually, it's 59 years, 8 months and 5 days - March 7, 1945.
Posted by: fatbear at November 12, 2004 02:00 PM"What is the ratio of Iraqi dead to foreign invader dead?"
Not high enough.
Posted by: Bernard Guerrero at November 12, 2004 02:11 PMThe reason for the peace is pretty obvious, isn't it? Which is why we're doing the same thing to Iraq.
Posted by: Patrick R. Sullivan at November 12, 2004 02:49 PMWhat's your definition of effective? Can't be ratio of opposing casualties to own casualties.
Posted by: ogmb at November 12, 2004 02:58 PMPatrick is right. France and Germany were at peace due to the influence of possible Soviet invasion. Iraqis are now uniting due to US invasion.
Posted by: Rob at November 12, 2004 03:14 PMSatrick Pullivan talking out of his ass again? What else is new?
AllenM: The Rheingau is the stretch between Mainz and Ruedesheim, home of great Rieslings. The stretch that separates Alsace and Baden is the Oberrhein, home of great Gewuertztraminers and the Maginot Line.
Posted by: ogmb at November 12, 2004 03:34 PMPatrick R. Sullivan writes:
>The reason for the peace is pretty obvious, isn't it?
You might be right. In 1914, the war to end war was launched, with assurance on all sides that the war would be quick and easy. After four bloody years and a mountain of corpses, one side won, imposed an unwise and unjust peace and installed a government that, though more democratic, had little mandate from the people. When, just a few years later, that installed government was overthrown by a even more pathological regime, the winners of the war, thoroughly disillusioned by the previous wasteful and useless conflict, wer barely able to react in time to the very real menace that had been created. Following yet another bloody war and an even higher corpse mountain....
> Which is why we're doing the same thing to Iraq
As you say.
Posted by: JO'N at November 12, 2004 03:34 PMActually, I don't believe that any armies crossed the Rhine bearing fire and metaphorical sword during the period 1870--1940--given that the result of 1870 was to move the Franco-German border west of the Rhine, and WWI on the Western Front was fought mostly inside France. But perhaps some expert on the geography of WWI can refute this; anyway, the professor's broader point is correct.
Posted by: rea at November 12, 2004 03:42 PMFile under 'Ha, Ha, Only Serious', Brad.
Posted by: NBarnes at November 12, 2004 04:08 PMPshaw! France and Germany are nothing. Its Greece and Turkey that are really amazing. I mean here we have groups going back and forth since the Persian Wars. I mean here we have two peoples who found enough time to slip in another war between the two world wars, now that takes some animosity.
Posted by: Rob at November 12, 2004 04:19 PMrea brings up WWI and 1870-1940
Prior to Patton's guys going over the RR bridge, the last time anyone went over the Rhine into Germany was Napoleon in 1805.
Posted by: fatbear at November 12, 2004 04:20 PMMy understanding was that the French thought in 1870 that they would manage to retake the the Rheingau but failed miserably and in fact lost territory.
Two mostly irrelevant factoids:
1) In a lot of my 19th-c french reading, I keep running across the argument that France "must expand to its natural borders," which of course means East to the Rhine. Chateaubriand in his memoires makes this case over and over again, for example. I'm guessing that this sentiment hadn't exactly gone away by WWI.
2) I was living in the Rheingau this last year and was amazed to hear the, well, Frenchiness of the local dialects, in infliction, pronunciation, and vocabulary. I don't know when these effects date to, whether it's a result of occupation or trade, but it's really audible.
Oh, and one last point about why France would want to exand into the Rhineland. It's not about eating the awesome local apples and rye; it's all about controlling traffic on the Rhine itself, one of the most efficient natural highways.
Posted by: Jackmormon at November 12, 2004 05:37 PM
I've been very impressed by South Africa's ability to hold together and maintain an oasis of relative prosperity.
That's certainly not the sort of outcome imagined by conservatives in the U.S. and U.K. who saw the ANC as Marxist terrorists.
Isn't that right, Mr. Cheney?
Posted by: Ottnott at November 12, 2004 05:59 PMDr. DeLong,
I remember hearing about the Cimbri & Teutons and about C. Marius in Latin in high school, but I forget, who wrote about them? I would like to review.
Posted by: James S. W. at November 12, 2004 06:04 PM
I've been very impressed by South Africa's ability to hold together and maintain an oasis of relative prosperity.
That's certainly not the sort of outcome imagined by conservatives in the U.S. and U.K. who saw the ANC as Marxist terrorists.
Isn't that right, Mr. Cheney?
Posted by: Ottnott at November 12, 2004 06:06 PMQuintinius Varus, where are my men?
Dr. DeLong,
I remember hearing about the Cimbri & Teutons and about C. Marius in Latin in high school, but I forget, who wrote about them? I would like to review.
Posted by: James S. W. at November 12, 2004 06:18 PMDr. DeLong,
I learned about C. Marius and the Cimbri & Teutons in high school Latin class, but I would like to know about them more in-depth. Who wrote about them?
Posted by: James S. W. at November 12, 2004 06:24 PMDr. DeLong,
I learned about C. Marius and the Cimbri & Teutons in high school Latin class, but I would like to know about them more in-depth. Who wrote about them?
Posted by: James S. W. at November 12, 2004 06:25 PMQuintinius Varus, where are my men?
Posted by: Augustus Caesar at November 12, 2004 06:38 PM"Pshaw! France and Germany are nothing. Its Greece and Turkey that are really amazing. I mean here we have groups going back and forth since the Persian Wars."
You forgot the Trojan War!
Actually, the most mysterious silence for me is the one at the angle of Turkey and Syria, the Cilicia/Hatay area that was historically always a strategic zone. Right now it remains out of play because of some fast French dealing in late 1939. Without that the history of the Second World War could have been very different...
"Quintinius Varus, where are my men?"
Salve,
I think you meant to say, "Quinctilie Varre, legiones redde?" Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.
Vale.
Posted by: Abiola Lapite at November 13, 2004 05:30 AMJames S.W.: For Cimbri and Teutones see: Livy,Historiae; Epitome of Books LXVII and LXVIII
Posted by: Thomas T. Schweitzer at November 13, 2004 11:26 AMThank God that the Germans have been quiet. They now know how to make intergrated circuits and that uranium can be made to explode.
Posted by: Eunoia23 at November 13, 2004 01:40 PMImo vero, AL. Memento Plauti.
"the most effective killers of foreigners for centuries"
What about America's genocide of the natives? Britain's oppression of natives all round the world? Russia's terrible treatment of Poles and other eastern Europeans? In fact, the two million Germans who died in the relocation of 12 million post-WWII and the four million or so Ukrainains who died under Stalin must outnumber those who died in all France's wars of aggression.
Posted by: PJ at November 14, 2004 12:35 PMYes, any sane person will be glad that border is quiet.
Posted by: PJ at November 14, 2004 12:37 PMGiven Wagner et al it looks a mild enough river. Though the gorges west of Konstanz and Frankfurt are quite dramatic. Flow is fast at Bonn. The Rotterdam river-docks stretch for MILES. Where it enters the North Sea it is a real pussy cat of a river.
Posted by: Fast Pete at November 15, 2004 08:25 AMJames S.W. --- Also see Plutarch's Life of Marius.
And Tacitus's description in the Annals of the battlefield where Varus's legions fell is memorably creepy.
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