Last
week President Barack Obama proposed a policy of allying with the
Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafists, and al-Qaida against Syria.
What
is amazing about Islamism parallels the debate on appeasing—rather than
opposing--Hitler based on newly released British intelligence
documents.
One
of the themes then, as now, was to give everyone the benefit of the
doubt, no matter what a violent and threatening past he had. Ideology is
ignored.
The day after Hitler took power, on January 30, 1933, the Times of London, (a newspaper like the New York Times) editorialized
“That
Herr Hitler who leads the strongest party in the Reichstag and obtained
almost one third of the votes at the last election should be given the
chance at showing that he is something more than an orator and an
agitator was always desirable.”
About
the same day, Guy Liddell of British intelligence, responsible for
Germany, wrote in a secret report, that while he knew about antisemitic
persecution in the new Germany: there had indeed been too much Jewish
political power there. Liddell was strongly anti-Nazi and not personally
antisemitic but he was a supporter of the appeasement bloc in the
British government.
As opposed to the British international intelligence (MI-6, the
equivalent of the CIA), British counterintelligence (MI-6, the equivalent of the FBI), wanted a strong stand against Germany:
“No
reliance can be placed on any treaty which has been signed, or may be
signed, by Germany or Italy….” It took what Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf
seriously. He intended to conquer Europe.
One
reason MI-6 knew this was that it listened to anti-Nazi German agents.
The main hero was Wolfgang Purlitz, a diplomat at the German embassy in
Britain and later Holland. Along with John “Klop” Ustinov (father of the
actor Peter Ustinov) the two men had no illusions about the Nazis. In
fact they nagged British intelligence all the time about the need to get
tough.
So
did the second main agent, General Baron von Schweppenburg, the German
military attaché in London. In the summer of 1938 he told Purlitz, “We
simply must convince the British to stand firm, if they give in to
Hitler
now there will be no holding him.”
But
although the British government was repeatedly warned the prime
minister and government knew better. There were two factions—which is
more than the U.S. government has now regarding radical Islamism.
One
of the factors in British policy was a hope that if the Germans were
flattered and treated properly, they would not be aggressive. Another
reason was that the British felt guilty that they had formerly treated
Germany so
badly after World War One (Germanophobia?)
An MI-6 document of the time said:
“There
have been times that he [Purlitz] has said that the English. Are
hopeless and it is no use trying to help them to withstand the Nazi
methods which they so obviously fail to understand.…”
It
was these factors that convinced Hitler, in the words of a contemporary
MI-6 report, that Britain “decadent” and lacks “the will and power to
defend” itself.
Hitler himself was directly quoted as saying:
“It is astounding how easy the democracies make it for us to reach our goal.”
He was also directly quoted as calling Chamberlain an "arsehole." ( I wonder what Putin said about Obama.)
The prime minister’s own press aide,
George Steward, told the German press attaché—no kidding—that Britain “would give everything Germany asked for the next year.”
Meanwhile,
Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, according to a senior British
diplomat, “was completely bewitched by his German friends and reported
myopically that ‘the German compass was pointed toward peace.’”
With
Obama’s friends telling him that the Islamists’ compass was pointed
toward peace guess that proves the price of having an incompetent
leader.
As late as February 19, 1940, Chamberlain wrote,”All the information I seem to get points to peace.”
In
fact, we know this is not true. Even his former allies were jumping
ship, horrified by what they had done and knowing war had become
inevitable.
Robert
Vansitart, a foreign policymaker who was one of the leaders of the
tough position, along with Winston Churchill and Anthony Eden, wrote:
“Nothing seems any good. It seems as if nobody will listen to or believe me.”
I’ve
had days like that myself. But then the United States has never allied
with the Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafists, or in Syria, al-Qaida.
Oh, and at least a lot of courageous people in the establishment denounced the policy and even risked their careers to do it.
All quotes from Christopher Andrew, The Defense of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Penguin Books (London, 2110).
Purlitz
and Ustinov were given safe haven in Britain; General Baron von
Schweppenburg fought in the war for Germany and later helped rebuild the
West German army
Professor Barry Rubin, Director, Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center http://www.gloria-center.org
Forthcoming Book: Nazis, Islamists, and the Making of the Modern Middle East (Yale University Press)
The Rubin Report blog http://rubinreports.blogspot.com/
He is a featured columnist at PJM http://pajamasmedia.com/barryrubin/.
Editor, Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal http://www.gloria-center.org
He is a featured columnist at PJM http://pajamasmedia.com/barryrubin/.
Editor, Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal http://www.gloria-center.org
Editor Turkish Studies, http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ftur20#.UZs4pLUwdqU
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