Americans like to think we’re better than other countries in a barbarous world.
The fact we elected someone like Trump to leader our country, not once but twice, argues that we’re not so special after all. So does slavery, Native American genocide, and the Japanese-American internments. Trump’s hatemongering against immigrants has many precedents in American history.
We’re not innocent in war, either. For example, there’s Chenogne, Belgium. Most Americans know German S.S. troops massacred G.I. prisoners (84 to be exact) at Malmedy, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge .
But that wasn’t the only mass murder of prisoners in that battle. Two weeks after Malmedy, U.S. troops of the 11th Armored Division, part of Patton’s 3rd Army, massacred 80 captured Germans at Chenogne (see Mother Jones story here, and Wikipedia article here).
The incident was never investigated, even though Gen. Eisenhower demanded an investigation, and a coverup was alleged. Today the Chenogne massacre is no secret, but most Americans haven’t heard of it, and why would they? There were countless atrocities, and our histories emphasize those committed by our enemies.
Readers of military histories are given the big picture, something a G.I. fighting the battles never has. Those books don’t capture the raw emotions of seeing buddies killed. The soldier on the ground doesn’t just fight the enemy; he learns to hate him.
One thing I’ve learned is that human nature doesn’t vary by country, culture, or century. People are essentially the same everywhere, past and present. America’s democracy is a historical accident. We’re lucky to live when we do, and where we do.
But we’ve got to drop the notion that we’re inherently better than the rest of humanity simply because we’re Americans. To be better, and more moral, requires us to work at it. Any of us are capable of less, if we let up. We should never forget that.
