Tony Blair has recently made some perfectly reasonable and convincing revisionist comments on the mass atrocities committed in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s.
Well, when I say “perfectly reasonable and convincing,” that’s a bit of a stretch, but I’m not supposed to be reporting these comments…
So I’m actually doing you guys a favor!
Oh, what did I just say? Does that sound like something any “notable public figures” in recent history might have said?
Never mind. He’s no David Irving; at least he’s got that going for him.
Works in reverse too, of course…
As does shallow, superficial rhetoric like:
We cannot simply speak in favour of a war criminal who endangers the lives of his own citizens!
Still, as Our Tony hath decreed:
Shut the hell up and take the medicine.
Look, it’s like this, the Germans just have to free themselves from the idea that they are responsible for events beyond their control…
No one could possibly have predicted that Hitler would have massacred millions of innocent people and started a world war.
I mean, the Germans were doing the very best they possibly could on limited intelligence and a degree of uncertainty about Hitler’s true intentions.
Admittedly, in fairness, one can’t deny, it’s not so terribly far from the truth, that some significant errors were made.
And in the rough and tumble of serious politics, sometimes you don’t always get it right. I mean, know what Iām talking about, believe you me! š
Yes, I’m sure we can all agree that the tyranny of unexpected consequences is always a distinct possibility, if you want to put it like that.
Look, it’s like this, no one knew with 100%, unquestionable certainty that Hitler really intended to do the things we was supposedly plotting to do.
I mean, how could anyone have POSSIBLY known that the election candidate in question was going to torture and kill a large number of innocent people, and destabilize vast swathes of territory?
No one could possibly have thought that such consequences were remotely plausible. How could they?
Yes, yes: it’s extremely uncharitable, indeed downright judgmental, to blame individuals from some years back…
For not possessing some kind of infallible Divine insight, some absolute, unqualified omniscience, that would have informed them, without the slightest shadow of a doubt, that voting for Hitler would be some kind of vaguely defined misfortune, let alone comprehensive disaster.
I mean, historical hindsight is 20/20, as I always say. I simply can’t believe how judgmental people are, when they blame the Germans for a simple mistake any one of us could so very easily have made.
Well? Do you seriously mean to tell me anyone in Germany would have deliberately acted in such a manner, if they’d had the slightest inkling that some kind of more-or-less negative consequences MIGHT JUST follow?
You know, just on some strange, arbitrary, random off-chance?
No: of course not! Why would you! No, no, let me just say… let me tell you, sincerely: now, I’ve been in politics a long time, and believe it or not, not ONE politician on earth is infallible.
No, that might surprise you, but let me just say this.
Not ONE of us knows in advance every single inevitable result of every single little minor decision…
Like, say, electing a leader, going to war, bombing other countries, sending off my troops to fight in the name of our national interest (or indeed vice versa), deciding if it’s Nescafe or Rooibos for the roundtable discussion…
Well, no, no, I’m sorry, I just have to say this, I’m afraid…
(Well, why not!)
No, no, now listen to me: it’s really deeply, deeply unjust, and I am, well, to put it bluntly, absolutely indignant that purely for the sake of scoring some petty political capital, some opportunistic critics have been treating the Germans of some years back in a manner that…
Well, to be truthful, it’s nothing short of vilification. Quite frankly, it’s an intolerable insult to the memory of all those admittedly rather unfortunate people out there of one sort or another who were, killed, tortured, butchered, (as it were)…
When these hateful people insist on cynically and ignorantly singling out the Germans, as though they were the only people in history who’ve made some kind of error of judgment of some sort or another…
And who somehow had the unforgivable temerity to make JUST ONE LITTLE TINY MISTAKE!
I mean, I agree with you, they probably didn’t always get it right, and perhaps, if you insist, they didn’t even get it right on that one single, solitary occasion…
But you just have to look at the big picture, don’t you!
Join us next time, where Blair will continue to fulfill his lofty dream of speaking The Absolute Truth to the powerless.
(Not to be confused with “speaking truth to power.”)
Blair Warns Germany: Stop Apologizing for Mass Atrocities (2/2)