Preaching the 11th Commandment
From an interview with André Glucksmann:
Glucksmann: In these pacifist times, we have had long debates in Die Zeit. Joschka Fischer did not agree with me for a long time. In the end he conceded that after Srebrenica there is something worse than war, and that is Auschwitz. What I cannot now understand is how he has turned into a pacifist once again in the face of Saddam Hussein Š who is much worse, bloodier and more dangerous than Milosevic, and who has gassed people, partly with German gas.Q: Maybe Germany and France are so opposed to war because of the war-torn history they have shared. CanÕt you accept that this is also part of the common inheritance of European humanism? The loathing of war is understandable after all, isnÕt it?
Glucksmann: Of course everything can be understood. Nobody wants war, me included. The question is, is there something worse than war?
I have been answering ŌyesÕ for years. One thing that is worse than war is genocide Š that is, the extinction of a whole people. Many people said this before Auschwitz. In Greek tragedy, it is revealed in the destruction of Troy. This is indeed the horizon of western history.
That is why I donÕt believe that the refusal to take part in a war against Saddam should be seen as an expression of humanism, but of a blindness that exists not only in Europe, but in all civilisations. We all want to live peacefully, oblivious and happy. That wish already existed in ancient Athens, and there is nothing wrong with it as such, except that it is not very realistic.
Q: Do you think France will stick to its opposition against the US?
Glucksmann: Longer than in Germany. Here in our country, the rivalry with America is more prominent. But at the moment, the people in the street are only asking themselves, how can we stand up against Bush? Saddam Hussein doesnÕt come into the equation, and that is where my whole objection lies. Because the issue here is actually Saddam.
Bush is a challenge for American democracy; Aznar, the challenge for Spanish democracy. Why are there fewer protestors in France than in Spain, England or Italy? Because in Italy they fight Berlusconi, in Britain they fight Blair Š and in France they fight nobody.
But the overriding question remains: what about Saddam Hussein? If I may be a little moralistic here: I could not look at myself in the mirror if Saddam Hussein were still in power because I have been to a demonstration against Bush, and as a result, the people in Iraq had to live in this totalitarian regime for another twenty years.