"Stuff Happens"............9/11 Ten Years After

This is not the blog I intended to write this week – events have somewhat overtaken me and, as often happens, I read things, watch the news and something  becomes of greater importance!

For the past few days our newspapers and TV news have been full of the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attack in New York. What seem to be constant replays of the attack on the twin towers and of New Yorkers fleeing for their lives have been the staple diet of each news broadcast and any number of dedicated programmes. The events have been analysed, put into the context of the past decade, reviewed and explained. As the anniversary approaches we have had warnings that there might be other attacks this 9/11  so security is being ramped up across the world, but especially, of course, in New York.

One of the iconic 
images of 9/11

The events of 9/11, whatever one’s views on them, undeniably altered world opinion and understanding. A whole new vocabulary was born, we all became familiar with people, places and ideas that prior to that day were largely irrelevant to the man in the street – Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, war on terror, Bin Laden, Taliban, al  Qaeda, CIA, Muslim extremist, suicide bomber........... The list is endless. We have all had to learn a different way of life – walk through any shopping mall and put down your bags for a few moments and you are likely to be confronted by security; we now have to turn up at the airport many hours before a flight to navigate the security requirements; people of different cultures now view each other (sadly) with some measure of circumspection, we have all become used to every few months being told “there is a credible threat” and security is being increased. We now all, I believe, view the world very differently and in doing so, it seems to me, we have become  more suspicious of our fellow humans, more cynical of governments (of every hue), more openly aggressive and at the same time more fearful  – and, consequently,  I believe, less tolerant.

And another

At the same time  as the  9/11 anniversary has been grabbing more and more of the headlines we have also in the UK had the release of an official report into the “violent and cowardly abuse” by British soldiers which led to the death of an Iraqi detainee – Baha Mousa - who was being held in custody in 2003. The report, found that troops from 1st Battalion Queen's Lancashire Regiment inflicted "gratuitous" violence on a group of Iraqi civilians, who were kicked and hit in turn, "causing them to emit groans and other noises and thereby playing them like musical instruments". This humiliating practice was nicknamed "the choir”.

I have no intention of commenting upon the particular factors or the guilt or otherwise of the soldiers or the detainees involved. I do not know enough about it. I did, however, watch with horror news footage last night showing prisoners in Iraq (and I assume other places) who were routinely tied up with what appeared to be electrical ties and had sacks put over their head. The report commented that “the  detainees were kept handcuffed, hooded and in stress positions in extreme heat and conditions of some squalor, which  was prohibited under the Geneva conventions and was  unjustified and wholly unacceptable". 

"Oh, don't I look grand" -
Gen. Sir Peter Wall and his gold tassels.
Do you think he is trying to impress
or pull the tassels over our eyes?

And after the news item we were treated to an army general –  Sir Peter Wall - all dressed up in his clown’s costume with enough gold braid dangling from his chest to make him look like a middle aged transvestite lap dancer sporting nipple tassels. He assured us that the army had “learned lessons” since these events took place. Well maybe - but I think  I'd be more likely to believe the transvestite lap dancer! Anyway,  we can all sleep easy in our beds knowing that our brave lads and their gold covered commanders have learned their lessons. We’ve all said sorry and it won’t happen again – the moral compass of the nation is back on course: Army 1 - Transvestite Lap Dancers 0! It's good to know that the army are behind us.

 But I’m afraid for me it isn’t. I have a number of major anxieties.

The British army at work -
but "we have learned lessons" 
and we
are professionals!

Firstly, the regiment was the Queen’s Lancashire regiment – I do not blame them specifically it could have been any regiment anywhere. We have read  similar stories of abuse being perpetrated by others within the British army and within American forces over the past ten years. But, the Queen’s Lancashire regiment are the direct descendents of the regiment that my grandfather fought with in the Great War. He was not a professional soldier but a conscript. He would have been horrified at the abuse and torture meted out in his name. I blogged about him and his war injuries in February this year(http://arbeale.blogspot.com).   It saddened me – indeed angered me – that those wearing the Lancashire uniform today do not have the ideals which, I believe,  people of his generation had.

And secondly – and following from the first point. My grandfather – like millions of soldiers in the Great War and the Second World War - were conscripts. They were drafted in to fight. Many joined willingly, seeing it as their duty. Others, perhaps less so but they had no choice – they were “called up”. In that situation one can easily understand that tough discipline might be necessary to whip these conscripts into shape and to turn “butchers bakers and candlestick makers” into fighting men, capable of unquestioningly accepting and  carrying out orders. It might also be understood when these men behaved badly – they were not professionals, they didn’t want to be there anyway. But today this is not the case. We, allegedly have a "professional" army – filled with people who have opted to become soldiers – no compulsion. Many, I am sure, see this as  service to their country. Others may have joined because they liked the thought of an action filled life. And others might have joined because it  promised  a career perhaps not available so easily in the outside world. But, whatever the reason, they have joined willingly and so should easily be able to subscribe to the customs and requirements of the army. But apparently not - given what we have seen on our TV screens.

General Dannatt - 
seems an honest guy - 
but like Sir Peter, 
loves his tassels
and for me raises 
questions.

The point that I make above was perhaps reinforced a few months ago by General Lord Dannett, the head of the British army until he retired in 2009. A few months ago he caused a stir when he commented that the Army must provide a moral education for its recruits. Lord Dannatt said that many members of the forces had "chaotic backgrounds" and had not been exposed to "traditional values". He said a lack of respect for others could lead to outrages such as the abuse of Iraqi civilians. Dannatt went on to say that it was vital that servicemen and women be taught what he called the "core values" of courage, integrity, respect, loyalty, discipline and selfless commitment and  suggested that members of the Army should undertake a refresher course in those values as part of their annual training tests. "If there isn't a moral basis then frankly the whole of life is baseless and has no fixed starting point," he said, "so we feel it's a legitimate thing to do to train people in having a moral baseline." Respect for others, he added, was "almost the most important" of the values which members of the Armed Forces were taught.Without it, he warned, "that's when you're into bullying or abusing Iraqi citizens".

Mmmm! I have to agree completely with his comments. But they beg a number of questions - most obviously who we are recruiting onto the armed services. Are we recruiting anyone we can get? Are people without these "core values" not weeded out in the initial selection process? Are we back to the situation where people were just recruited/enlisted as "cannon fodder"?  It seems to me to somewhat negate the term "professional" army - certainly by any definition of "professional" that I understand (apart from the obvious one of being paid for their work). And, most importantly for me, it seems to confirm a somewhat bizarre situation.  We appear to have an army involved in actions to preserve and maintain our way of live and our society's values against those who would attack them  and at the same time be actively striving to ensure, impose or establish these values on other societies such as Iraq and Afghanistan.  Yet many of the people most actively involved apparently do not necessarily subscribe to these values, have to be taught them and have to be sent on refresher courses to remind them and ensure that they have a "moral baseline". I suppose an analogy would be that the police run recruiting campaigns in our prisons and then run courses for ex-inmates to ensure they are on the straight and narrow and professional bobbies! 

And I'm another good chap
my name is General Haig.
Some unkind people
 call me Butcher Haig
because  I caused 2 million
 casualties in the Great War.
I'm so sorry about Tony's
granddad being a casualty -
but we "learned our lessons"
and anyway, "stuff happens" 

Given this situation I suppose the violence and abuse makes some kind of perverted sense!  Our defence secretary, Liam Fox tells us that:  "There is no place in our armed forces for the mistreatment of detainees and there is no place for a perverted sense of loyalty that turns a blind eye to wrongdoing or erects a wall of silence to cover it up." Well, “Amen” to that but I’m afraid that I increasingly despair when even the very people who are trained and supposed to uphold our “freedoms” and “values” and protect them from those who would take them from us do themselves the very things which we despise in our alleged “enemies”. In short, we condemn regimes like that of Gadaffi or Saddam Hussein and call them undemocratic and brutal. We point the finger at groups like the Taliban or Al Qaeda but we then discover that at the highest level we have been dealing with these bodies, we have been passing over suspects for interrogation, we have shaken hands and greeted them (as did Blair with Colonel Gaddafi) for “coming in out of the cold” – and at the lower level our “professional” soldiers behave in the same way that we might expect these “enemies of democracy” to behave. In the final analysis one can talk about the Geneva Convention, of “perverted sense of loyalty” or “wrongdoing”, of “learning lessons” or “violent and cowardly abuse” but in the end it all seems to be to be about common humanity. What was actually going through the minds of these people as they put sacks over the heads of other human beings? Are people that are as callous and inhuman as this capable of “learning lessons” or changing their personality on a refresher course!. Did not some small alarm bell ring in their minds that this was not acceptable behaviour for one human being to another – and if it did not can we really say that we have a “professional” army and that “lessons have been learned”. If we have to introduce new rules and run training courses for soldiers to advise them what is appropriate and humane then I fear for the alleged “professionalism” of our military.

But, as I say,  just like the nodding donkies sent people like my grandfather “over the top” from the trenches in 1914   the man in the funny suit and the gold braid says that “lessons have been learned”. We shall see.

But  I  have other worries. As I  listened on the news broadcast  an articulate young Muslim talked of the fear that stalks the streets for people like him in  many parts of America (and in Britain too). By coincidence on the same day this week into my e-mail inbox came mail drop reminding me to visit the “My Fellow American” web site (http://myfellowamerican.us/)   and which I referred to in my blog “You never ask questions when God’s on your side” - http://arbeale.blogspot.com – (July 2011). And I am again even more convinced that a major “fall out” from 9/11 is that we have all become less tolerant and more brutal – whether it be putting sacks over the heads of fellow human beings in a prison cell in Iraq, whether it be demonising people of a different culture to our own or whether it be simply accepting that guns on the street and random searches are the price we must, it seems, pay for our “freedom”.

Sage, philosopher, political
heavyweight and master of
the insightful comment.
 A man who tells it
as it is - if only Donald
knew what it is!

You may (and many will) accuse me of being a “bleeding heart liberal” or a “leftie” or “an idealist”. You might say I should get out more or get into the real world - it’s a tough place, hard decisions have to be made you might say – as that great thinker and  political philosopher Donald Rumsfeld reminded us so succinctly and perceptively  a few years ago, “Stuff happens”.  And I would plead guilty to these charges and I would remind you that the whole point (if there is one) of the war on terror or the Great War or the Second World War is that they were fought to preserve our society’s many values – not least democracy, humanity, liberalism, idealism, kindness, freedom to worship....... .   If I cannot have the “right” to be a liberal or an idealist or to worship in my own way then what is the point of our democratic societies or the war on terror?

And all these thoughts have crashed into my mind  as we run up to 9/11 and see the old footage and the latest news. As I watched last night’s news footage I saw the streets of  New York being watched over by men with guns. I saw what appeared to be hundreds of police cars moving in high profile convoys through the streets. I saw random stop and search operations being undertaken. All, I am sure, perfectly acceptable and required – but what a monstrous society we have created. It is the culture of the world we now inhabit and accept. It all reminds me of the famously ominous Orwellian phrase from "1984" - "War is peace".

Orwell forecast it in 1984
(book written in 1949).
How right he was - on
so many things

But all of this came together and was put into perspective and sharp contrast  today when two things happened. One was skimming through some old photographs whilst doing a bit of housekeeping on my computer and the other was reading a book.

The first concerned my daughter, who, when she was at university some twenty years ago spent six months working, as part of her foreign language course, in Germany (Stuttgart). We had German friends who lived near Stuttgart and they kindly offered to let her stay with them which she did. On the first weekend she was there she went out for a walk around the village where they lived and after some time came to some allotments. The path went through the allotments but she was a little uncertain as to whether she should take it so, in stumbling German, she asked an elderly man who was digging his allotment. He smiled and in perfect English, with a welsh accent, replied that yes of course she should take the path! He explained that he had been a German prisoner of war during in the Second World War and had spent several years England and Wales doing farm work as a prisoner. He had been treated very kindly by his captors and made many friends and still regularly visited the farm and the family with whom he was billeted.

Pat and I (on the left) enjoying
 the hospitality of Willi Durr (centre)
 and his family -wife Gretle
 and sons Thomas and Heinrich

From that day onwards my daughter and Willi became firm friends – he insisted on her coming each Sunday for lunch with his family; whenever my wife and I visited we too were welcomed into his house – he was a wonderful man and, like our friends in Stuttgart, someone who we knew our daughter could turn to for help if needed while she was in Germany. He proudly showed us around his city, took us his favourite bierkellers and each time we visited gave us a flagon of his home made kirsch made from the fruits of his allotment and so powerful it was almost  guaranteed to strip paint, cure any illness known to mankind and be a perfectly good reason to introduce instant prohibition!!!! A wonderful man.  And as I did a bit of housekeeping on my computer files today I came across the picture of Pat and I having an evening meal with Willi and his family – Anglo/ German relations at their best! It all seems a long way away from putting bags over the heads of people or random searches or men on the streets with guns – and yet only a couple of generations ago our two nations were at each other’s throats.

My second story – and indeed the one that finally prompted this blog – mirrors my tale of Willi Durr from Stuttgart -  but perhaps shows how far we have moved as a society. It is ten years since 9/11 – and I find it terribly sad that in the ten years that have passed we are still fighting this “war”. That, for whatever reasons, we still feel the need to have high security or to demonise other cultures. Despite all our clever technology and vast wealth we are still unable find ways to live with our fellow men. Our leaders tell us that the war on terror must be won and that “ideologies” have to be defeated – not much peace and reconciliation there then!

Trautmann  being 
welcomed to Manchester 
City by his new
 team mates. Four
 years previously
they had been on 
opposite sides of
 the battlefield

I am currently reading the biography of Bert Trautmann. For those readers who might be unfamiliar with the name, Trautmann (who is now well into his nineties) was a footballer. He was a German goalkeeper who, like our friend Willi, was a prisoner of war in England during the Second World War. He had been a paratrooper, was captured and interned in a prisoner of war camp just outside Manchester. At the end of the war he elected to stay in England rather than return to war ravaged Germany. He played local football and a year or two after the war his skills were spotted by Manchester City and he was signed up as a professional footballer. He soon became a household name – his skills as a keeper were legendary. He represented West Germany at international level but played all his professional football in England for Manchester City. The high point of his career came in 1956 when Manchester City reached the Cup Final at Wembley. With seventeen minutes to go City were leading Birmingham 3-1 but then as one of the Birmingham forwards (Peter Murphy) ran through and seemed certain to score Trautmann dived at his feet. Trautmann was knocked unconscious and took several minutes to recover. In those days no substitutes were allowed and Trautmann played on – groggily staggering around his goal. He made a number of other great saves and eventually the final whistle blew and City had won. As Trautmann collected his winner’s medal from the Duke of Edinburgh the Duke commented to him: "Your neck looks crooked". That night Trautmann was in serious pain but went to the after match reception and next morning visited a London hospital where they diagnosed a “crick” in his neck that would “soon get better”. It didn’t and when he returned to Manchester he again visited a hospital and it was confirmed he had broken his neck! He became an overnight hero – not just as a goalkeeper but as a brave man. Trautmann at last retired in the mid sixties. He was later awarded an honorary OBE for promoting  international understanding – especially between England and Germany and has spent much of his retirement developing and leading sporting charities aimed at developing sporting links for the young between nations.

The Cup Final incident that 
made Trautmann a legend

But, back to my reading of the biography. In January 1949 shortly before Trautmann joined Manchester City  he was given the chance to return to Germany for a short period as part of the government’s gradual repatriation of ex-POWs. He decided to go and see his family who he had not seen for almost seven years. He was playing at this time for St Helens – a tiny club who paid him £1 per week. His full time job as an ex-POW was bomb disposal work. It was by this time obvious that sooner or later one of the big clubs would sign him up and his many friends amongst the St Helen’s supporters knew they would soon lose him. At the end of the game (which they lost 2-0) prior to him going off to Germany to see his long lost family one of the supporters came to speak to him as he stood in goal one wet Saturday afternoon. “Come to the local cafe for a cup of tea after the game, Bert” he was told. After the game a cold bedraggled Trautmann went for his cuppa. When he arrived the cafe was full and he was greeted with thunderous applause and cheering. When the cheering died down he was presented with a great chest (weighing about 30 Kg) filled with tinned food, sugar, cakes, hams, and other items – all donated from the food rations of the supporters. (England still had post war food rationing). He was also given an envelope with £50 crumpled notes in it. “We know times are bad for your people in Germany” said a spokesman “so we thought we would send some help”. Trautmann, not unnaturally, was overcome. He stuttered his thanks and his eyes filled with tears.
Somehow or other he managed to get the chest to Bremen with him, dragging it through the war devastated streets of the German port. The food chest was welcome and helped to explain to his family why he intended to return to England rather than stay in Germany – “the English are the kindest people” he told his brother. And he did. A few weeks later he was back in Manchester and signing a contract to play for Manchester City – and the rest is history, so they say.

Trautmann is helped from the
Wembley pitch by his team mates 
nursing the broken neck

Of course, Trautmann got his share of critics at the time but he had far more supporters – there was an air of tolerance and reconciliation in the air.  Many letters condemning and condoning the signing by City of the German were sent to the local newspaper: “When I think of all those millions of Jews who were tortured and murdered I can only marvel at City’s crass stupidity” said one critic. But there were many others supporting: “Whether he be gentile or Jew, black or white, German or Chinaman, if this recruit plays the game in the sporting way Frank Swift [the previous keeper] did, then he’ll do for me, Until this bitterness us stamped out how can we expect nations to unite”. And, “So the signing of a German goalkeeper has upset the “sporting instincts” of some City supporters. Well, I think it’s a great idea. I’ve never had any particular like or dislike for Germans - I don’t know many -  but antagonism should not be centred on this one individual. Good luck to him – and to the team.” Such, indeed, was the young German’s popularity that it was not uncommon when he played for St Helens for local girls  at the end of games to run onto the pitch and set upon Trautmann – “He was regularly buried under an avalanche of girls at the final whistle, you couldn’t see Bert at all, and nylon stocking tops were glimpsed as the girls tried to get at him”  one of his former team mates enviously recalled! Well, no demonising of other cultures there; no lack of common humanity; no cowardly and violent abuse; no  lessons needing to be learned! What has gone wrong in the intervening years?

Trautmann, the German, is 
honoured by the English Queen

A long way, this from putting sacks over the heads of people or demonising them because of their  religious beliefs or blaming a whole race or value system for the doings of a few hot heads. And yet the Trautmann tale all took place  all within two or three years of the conclusion of the greatest war in history. And as I thought about all this I mused that my father fought in France at the time that Trautmann and Willi were captured - in another life they might have met on the battle field and killed each other. And what good would that have done? Well, I might not have been born, my daughter might not have had a friend to turn to when she was in Germany  the world would have been denied a great sportsman. No, I'll stick to peace and reconciliation - it seems to have more mileage in it.


Yes, 9/11 was a terrible event which must not be forgotten. But we must move on - in the intervening years we seem to have lost something – is it called forgiveness, is it called understanding, is it common humanity,  is it called tolerance? Whatever it is, it seems to me that there sure as hell is little of it about in our current world – from top to bottom - but there sure seems a lot of hate and retribution stalking our streets.