PSEUDO PATRIOTISM

76. The following letter was e-mailed to the authors of two articles in the Sunday Star (08/08/'10)

Dear Finlay and Michael,
Most NZ'ers see present days wars from only one pseudo-patriotic perspective: 'Your country right or wrong', as it was seventy years ago and before. I am one of those who can vividly remember being under occupation and resisting foreign occupation. Propaganda from our corporate news media 'informs' us that we are 'training Iraqi/Afghan police'. Did you know that the Germans in occupied Europe had their collaborators, who for the Judas kiss (we call it more appropriate 'penny') served the occupiers. ? The Maquis in France and the Partizans in Yugoslavia. In The Netherlands the Germans had an entire division of the Dutch Waffen SS. Needless to say that those who collaborated with the invaders were targeted by the Dutch 'terrorists' and severely punished or executed after liberation. The Soviet Union under the brutal communist regime of Stalin at the time, nevertheless put up a fierce resistance. So have and still have the Iraqis and the Afghan people. I am not fooled by all these euphemistic propaganda stories in order to shore up support of the American interest, because I have seen it all before. You see, the Love for ones country is inherent in every person and in all genuine patriotic people the world over, irrespective under what regime people live and is not an exclusive phenomenon only western/American people are endowed with.