your village voice

What Wall?

On May 9, 2005, part of the VE-Day festivities involved a huge military parade in Red Square. As leader of the "Free World", President Bush of course attended. He was more than jovial with the President Putin, joking around with him and even offering to take a private drive with him in his Russian car.
Am I the only one who has a problem with this? Not only was the parade a tasteless display of militarism and jingoism, it glossed over the millions imprisoned and killed because of Stalinism. Meanwhile, there is Bush cutting up with Putin next to Lenin's tomb. I am not so much upset with Bush as I am the ridiculous world politic as of late. Are we only to remember the fall of Nazi Germany and not the oppression of Stalinism? Are we to forget Putin himself is guilty of a backward-sliding democratic vision? Where is history with its true face?

It seems commonplace now to bury history in a glory of fanfare rather than face its consequences. The consequences of Germany's defeat to Russia lead to the Berlin Wall and the insane MAD policies of the Cold War. At least somebody said something about it:

The European Union said on Friday the fall of the Berlin Wall, rather
than Nazi Germany, was the "end of dictatorship" in Europe, risking upsetting
Russia as it prepares to celebrate World War II victory.

"We honor the many innocent victims of past conflicts and those who
paid the highest price in defense of freedom and democracy," the EU's executive
Commission said in a declaration marking the 60th anniversary of the end of the
war in Europe.

"We remember as well the many millions for whom the end of the Second
World War was not the end of dictatorship, and for whom true freedom was only to
come with the fall of the Berlin Wall."

Just another case of political expediency winning over moral accuracy . . .

Feels like Deja Vu all over again.

posted by the prisoner @ 10:54:00 AM