Apr 27 2010

Guernica: April 26, 1937

(11 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

“I urged him [Adolf Hitler] to give support [to Franco] under all circumstances, firstly, in order to prevent the further spread of communism in that theater and, secondly, to test my young Luftwaffe at this opportunity in this or that technical respect”

Herman Goring

So began the era of bombing civilians, just because some powerful country feels like, that is shamefully continued to this day.  

Iraq War

On February 5, 2003, a large blue curtain was used to cover up a tapestry copy of Picasso’s Guernica hanging at the entrance to the Security council room, so that it would not be visible in the background when Colin Powell and John Negroponte gave press conferences at the United Nations justifying why the United States of America must go to war with Iraq.[39]

Laurie Brereton, an Australian Labor MP and U.N. delegation member, reflected on the draped-over Picasso after Powell’s Wednesday speech:[40]

There is a profound symbolism in pulling a shroud over this great work of art…. We may well live in the age of the so-called “smart bomb”, but the horror on the ground will be just the same as that visited upon the villagers of Guernica…. Innocent Iraqis-men, women and children-will pay a terrible price. And it won’t be possible to pull a curtain over that.

On the following day, it was claimed that the curtain was placed there at the request of television news crews, who had complained that the wild lines and screaming figures made for a bad backdrop, and that a horse’s hindquarters appeared just above the faces of any speakers. Diplomats did, however, on condition of anonymity, tell some journalists later that the Bush Administration leaned on UN officials to cover the tapestry, rather than have it in the background while Powell or other U.S. diplomats argued for war in Iraq.

The stage was set for Dresden, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Kissinger’s carpet bombing,  and even Obama’s drone attacks in Pakistan–the world has never been the same since the events of 73 years ago today.  

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  1. fucking bottle?


  2. Bombing of Hiroshima

    On April 26, 2007, Dr. Tadatoshi Akiba, Mayor of Hiroshima and President of Mayors for Peace compared the experience of Guernica to Hiroshima:[38]

    Human beings have often sought to give concrete form to our powerful collective longing for peace. After World War I, that longing led to the League of Nations and numerous rules and taboos designed to govern warfare itself. Of these, the most important was the proscription against attacking and killing civilian non-combatants even in times of war. However, the second half of the twentieth century has seen most of those taboos broken. Guernica was the point of departure, and Hiroshima is the ultimate symbol. We must find ways to communicate to future generations the history of horror that began with Guernica….

    In this sense, the leadership of those here in Guernica who seek peace and have worked hard to bring about this memorial ceremony is profoundly meaningful. The solidarity we feel today derives from our shared experience of the horror of war, and this solidarity can truly lead us toward a world beyond war.

    – wikipedia

  3. Those who stood by the Spanish Republic, and the Spanish people in their noble resistance to Franco’s fascists, was a criminal offense in the US and treated as such.  In every “democratic” country, to oppose Franco and fascism, to oppose the authors of Guernica, was denounced politically.  After all, Hitler and Mussolini, and by extension Franco, were noting but “bulwarks against Bolshevism” for which we should all be grateful.  A few years later the tone was lightened, but just marginally; those who stood with Spain against Franco, Hitler and Mussolini were re-classified as “premature anti-fascists”.  It was sort of like being called “purist.”

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