Clinton and Katyn

It's an election,  of course, so no card must be left un-played. Nonetheless, there's something a little unseemly about trying to exploit war crimes and massacres for personal, political gain. In fact it's grotesque. I assume this press release* was supposed to appeal to Polish-Americans in Ohio.

Statement from Senator Hillary Clinton

“We will soon mark the 68th anniversary of the Katyn Massacre of Polish prisoners during World War II.

“This is a time to remember the victims of the Katyn massacre and also to reflect on the importance of remembrance itself.  Only by preserving the memory of past inhumanities can we hope to avoid inhumanity in the future. Only by seeking the truth about the past can we be confident about our pursuit of peace and justice today.

“On March 5, 1940, Stalin's Politburo gave the order for the Soviet secret police to execute more than 22,000 Polish POWs in cold blood.  This horrific mass murder was covered up by the Soviet authorities and denied for decades until Mikhail Gorbachev finally admitted the truth and Boris Yeltsin aided the international investigations by opening the Russian archives.

“I am concerned that the pace of Russian cooperation has slowed drastically under President Putin.  The Russian government, which had promised to hand over personal records of the victims and other information about Katyn, has been dragging its feet and has reclassified many of the files.  All the relevant archives should be opened up in the interest of establishing the full truth about Katyn.

“The crimes were committed long ago, but we cannot and we shall not forget.

“I believe that it is highly fitting that a historical film about the massacre titled "Katyn" and created by the acclaimed Polish director Andrej Wajda was nominated for an Academy Award as best foreign film in 2008.  Mr. Wajda's father was himself a victim of the Katyn massacre.

“I have profound respect for the Polish nation and for all the peoples of Eastern Europe who have emerged from the darkness of the 20th century.  I am proud that in our time the United States has been their partner and ally.”

I mean, really, what does Hillary Clinton know about Katyn? Does anyone really believe this release oozes sincerity? It's cheap and it's exploitative.

It's also stupid. Does Clinton not realise that the Russians aren't the only people who covered-up the massacres?  On at least three occasions the United States denied Soviet guilt, attributing the killings to the Nazis. Of course, there were plenty of good, even unstoppable, reasons for holding to that line. But we knew the truth as early as 1943 and continued to deny it for years. At least Churchill had the grace to feel guilty about this.

As much as any other event in the war, Katyn reminds us that, contrary to the feel-good depictions of the "Greatest Generation" and all the rest of it, the Second World War was not anything like as clear-cut a moral case of Good vs Evil as we like to remember. Germany needed to be defeated, but the price paid to defeat Nazism included sacrificing Poland - the very country whose independence we (Britain, that is) had gone to war to defend in the first place. This irony was not lost on British officers in Germany in 1945. That there were few, if any, alternatives to this gruesome outcome does nothing to diminish the Faustian pact we made with the Soviet Union.

However justifiably - in the pitiless frame of reference sanctioned by the war -  the United States was not Poland's "partner and ally" in 1945. I'm not quite sure why Hillary Clinton wants to remind Polish-Americans of this.

So, there you have it: a stupid and an unseemly campaign, trying to cash in on the memory of some of the grimmest events of the War. Classy stuff..

(If Obama issued a press release of this sort, I haven't seen it.)

*Thanks to reader MC for the tip.

Comments

[Apple]

And you don't think it sleaze when Obama uses a dialect in his speeches to a black audience that reflects a black way of speaking? Come on-give him the same scrutiny that you give Sen. Clinton!

[idiotic]

THIS IS EXCELLENT NEWS!!! FOR HILARY!!!!

[jimmy]

because using a dialect in one's speech is totally comparable to exploiting war crimes for political gain.

"Apple" you are a moron.

[GM]

Apple: Your comment is a complete non sequitur. How is Obama's dialect even remotely analogous to Clinton's self-serving exploitation of an event to which she has literally no connection?

[johnny]

Moreover, both candidates have used dialects. This is just pandering, NAFTA style, which both candidates engaged in (and only Obama got called out on, due to Goolsbee's folly).

[thibaud]

Massie's ignorance of US politics and US demography is showing. Any educated person from Chicago and most educated people from other cities with enormous Polish-American populations (Detroit, for ex) is familiar with Katyn. US pols have been catering to Polish-Americans with foreign-policy pronouncements like this for *decades*. Reagan did it to perfection in 1980, winning big in Polish and other white ethnic neighborhoods in and around Detroit, allowing him to capture Michigan.

[KingSol]

Please don't forget the large Polish population in PA.

[thibaud]

Also, the outrage over our refusal to slam a critical ally during the war is silly. We and the world desperately needed the Soviets on our side, esp given that their front saw an order of magnitude greater # of casualties and resources than any other front. As soon as the greater enemy was vanquished, we slammed the Soviets on this issue.

[policywank]

1945 wasn't "in our time" for senator Clinton or anyone born after WW2.

[Dan]

Clinton = Obama = Venal. They're within a sniff of the trough, and they'll do anything, say anything, to get to their snouts in. The GOP ain't up to much either. We have the same rotten bastards here.

[Who'Sane]

Hilary's claim to foreign policy experience during her Whitehouse years, without security clearance is evidence she broke the law. The republicans are waiting to have her as the nominee, her march back to the Whitehouse will be halted by a technicality.

[Leo, Mesa Arizona]

By referring to this tragedy and how it was revealed by opening the Russian archives, is Hillary saying she is now willing to release her Federal Papers and her Tax Documents? I am so glad, it's about time.

[one]

But no comment from Hilary
about the crimes that Israelis
are doing as we speak in Gaza eh?

[Lina]

How about the Poles killing more Jews than the Germans? The Germans allowed the Poles to do what they had always wanted to. They are virulently anti-Semitic to this day.

[Jeremy C.]

@ GM:

Too bad you haven't actually kept up with the news cycle on the NAFTA crap. Although, I suppose I can understand since only the Canadian media is reporting the facts at this point. I wonder what it's like to live in a place where the government gets called out on their bullshit?? Hmmm, I wonder.

http://www.cbc.ca/mrl3/8752/vsu/wmv-hi/macdonald-obama-memo080303.wmv

[J]

Lina,
It is astonishing to me that someone would make such false and mean-spirited comments, especially in response to this article. Since you apparently agree that anti-Semitism is immoral, perhaps you will recognize that anti-Polishness is equally immoral and retract your remarks.

[Vidor]

"the price paid to defeat Nazism included sacrificing Poland - the very country whose independence we (Britain, that is) had gone to war to defend in the first place."

No. This is something you see a lot, but it isn't true. Here is why: Britain's prospects of saving Poland went down the toilet in 1940 when France was defeated and Britain was kicked off the Continent. Poland was lost, gone, finished, kaput, sayonara. The issue became Britain's survival, and then defeating Germany by any means necessary. But ol' Adolf was quite right when he said the Poland of the Versailles treaty was not going to rise again. Not when it had been divvied up between two totalitarian dictatorships.

[JVLaB]

Massie:

I was all over this, too!

Check it out:
http://electiondissection.blogspot.com/2008/03/hillarys-hail-mary-from-koach-karls.html

And guess where I posted it from??
The Raven via wifi!!

[Ronin2Cold]

Lina,

Wow, you must be confused by all the misinformation that surfaced during the close of WW2! The fact is that for centuries Poland was one of the few countries to tolerate religious freedom. Furthermore, FYI more Polish died than Jews, not too mention the fact that most were Polish Jews. Funny how you seem to seperate nationality and religion when they can clearly be symbiotic.