The Nazis called the resistance in countries they invaded "terrorists" too

Like the Wehrmacht, we've descended into barbarity

The treatment of Iraqi prisoners is a consequence of coalition policy

Richard Overy
Monday May 10, 2004
The Guardian

Flicking through a Sunday magazine a few years ago I was struck by a colour photograph of heavily armed German soldiers on the eastern front in Russia burning a village to the ground. With the heavy helmets, camouflaged combat jackets, submachine guns thrown over shoulders, the image seemed standard fare. It was only when I looked at the caption that my illusions dissolved. It was a picture of US troops in Vietnam punishing Vietcong guerrillas. snip

There is, however, an important difference in the Iraqi case. The troops are professional soldiers (albeit some are reservists), not reluctant conscripts. The perpetrators of atrocities on the eastern front were, in Christopher Browning's well-known phrase, "ordinary men". In Vietnam, young recruits were thrown into a tough and pointless war.

This time we are dealing with soldiers trained to high professional standards - and it is alarming how their behaviour has degenerated. The images of gung-ho marines, armed to the teeth, guarding emaciated, poorly clad Iraqis, shows how unequal is the contest. A recent picture of two US tankmen flexing their muscles for the camera as they withdrew from Falluja conveys the cult of machismo which has invaded the professional armies, as it permeated the German army that entered Russia 60 years ago.

But more damage has been done by the endless propaganda to which coalition forces have been subjected. The chief culprit is Bush's war on terror, which has created the illusion that, in the Middle East, everyone is a potential threat. The "terrorist" - this was, of course, the term used by the Nazis to describe the resistance movements throughout occupied Europe - has become a generic, demonised fanatic, capable in the popular imagination of the worst atrocities. The effect has been to dehumanise the alleged enemy in Iraq, just as German propaganda dehumanised the Bolshevik commissar in 1941, and permitted their mistreatment and execution.

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