He wrote that the justifications for Israel’s war in Gaza became “difficult to defend” and that “whatever the justification you’re either advancing a policy that enables the mass starvation of children, or you’re not.” The post received an outpouring of support with hundreds of likes and comments in just a few hours. …
In his letter, Mann also says that he’s the descendant of European Jews and “was raised in a particularly unforgiving moral environment.”
“When it came to the topic of bearing responsibility for ethnic cleansing — my grandfather refused to ever purchase products manufactured in Germany — where the paramount importance of ‘never again’ and the inadequacy of ‘just following orders’ were oft repeated. I’m haunted by the knowledge that I failed those principles,” Mann wrote.
Mann went on to say that he held off sharing the reason for his resignation because he was afraid of violating professional norms and disappointing officers that he respects.
A real good Mann.
If only the rest of the military would Mann-up like this.
Mann himself stated his reasons include being a ‘descendant of European Jews’. I admire his moral conviction. For some people ‘never again’ are life/history/moral lessons learned, rather than mere slogans to be printed on stickers.
All this death and destruction helped along by US tax dollars, and US munitions.
I was not surprised Hillary ‘corporate’ Clinton came out full on pro-death-and-destruction, pointedly criticizing student protesters. It’s decades of failed blank check US foreign policy towards Israel playing out now.
One of the most surprising and dissapointing side effects of all this is how it showed that the German political and media elites had learned the “never again” lesson in a way that preserved and in some ways extended their racist way of thinking - “Never again shall Germany do that to Jews” - hence the unwavering support for Israel even when its ultra-nationalist etnostate extreme racist politics reached their natural conclusion in the form of an outright Genocide (rather than merelly Apartheid with some low-key murdering and land theft)
This man, on the other hand, learned the “never again” lesson as a true Humanist (and the naive amongst us expected this lesson to have being learned by any good person) - “Never again shall this happen to any people”.
Such a Humanist that he even sacrificed his own career deserves the most respect we can give, whilst the extreme racists who once again are supporting the Fascists of a favoured race when they’re commiting Genocide, should go down in History in infamy just like their ancestors.
He may not get a piece of paper that says ‘honorable’ on it, but that’s pretty damned honorable. Good man Mann
