Party in a madhouse

Following the terrorist attacks in the United States a wave of pacifist excitement swept through Germany. It was driven by two ideas: what did the Western world do to the perpetrators so that they saw reason to become as nasty as they did? And: what do we have to do so they spare us in the future?

It seemed to be a party in a madhouse ... and the motto of the celebration was: "No war, nowhere." There has never been such a thing as a just war, one was to hear, a war would not solve a single problem, but rather create more suffering and injustice ....

Any condemnation of the terror attacks against America came with a "but": But isn't it true that the victims share some of the guilt? Wasn't it American policy that created this type of reaction? Didn't the Americans support the military regime in Chile? And boycott the Kyoto accord? And contaminate the whole world with hamburgers? Of course, everybody was opposed to terrorism, but even more to hunting down terrorists because that would only encourage them to hit yet again. For that reason it was important to demonstrate a certain amount of understanding for the perpetrators who had acted in despair about the fate of the globe. The good Germans capitulated preventively in order not to be attacked themselves. This was their lesson from history.

-Henryk Broder, Kein Krieg, nirgends: Die Deutschen and der Terror (Berlin: Verlag, 2002), translated by Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff