Edelman experienced evil many times in his long and distinguished life; he faced it and fought it bravely. What he has to say bears listening to. In the 1980’s he was an anti-communist activist in the Solidarity movement and in the late 1990’s he wrote an open letter to President Clinton urging him to take action to stop the slaughter in Kosovo. Last year at the start of the Iraq war he already spoke out in support of the Coalition action.
Interviewer: Not a day seems to go by in Iraq without a terrorist attack and in the last ewdays two Polish soldiers and a Polish journalist have died. Edelman: And do you know any war where nobody dies? I don’t. Alas it’s in man’s make-up; there’s a fatal flow there that makes him kill for pleasure or over some silly beliefs.
Interviewer: So this war is one over some silly beliefs? Edelman: Now now. Who started killing people? Americans didn’t invade a wonderful democratic Iraq. There was a dictatorship there torture terror.
Interviewer: But there are people who say it’s not our business. Edelman: And whose business is it? Every war with fascism is our business. In 1939 there were also many people who said that the war in Poland was not their war and what happened? Great nations fell because politicians listened to those who were saying that it’s not worth dying for Gdansk [Danzig]. If only we’d intervened militarily after Hitler re-entered Rhineland we probably would not have had the war and the Holocaust.
Interviewer: Many people do understand that but they don’t understand why the Americans have to go to the other side of the world and fight over Iraq now. Edelman: And why did they go to Europe then? Who defeated Hitler and saved Europe from fascism? The French? No the Americans did. We thanked them then because they saved us. Today we criticize them because they’re saving somebody else.
Interviewer: But the Americans aren’t going too well with introducing democracy in Iraq. Edelman: That’s true but it’s a difficult war. The Second World War went for five years. Democracy tends to be structurally weak. Dictatorship is strong. Hitler was able to mobilize several million people and chase another few million into gas chambers or slave labor. But only democracy saves humanity and saves millions of lives. The more I see people getting murdered the more I believe that we need to put a stop to that. The murderers understand only deeds.
Interviewer: What about the photos from Abu Ghraib — don’t they cause you to start to question that American democracy? Edelman: Well it happened. Among several hundred thousand American soldiers there were a few perverts…
Interviewer: But the incident nevertheless seriously damaged America’s standing. What to say to Polish people after the death of several more of our soldiers? Edelman: But they died fighting for their freedom. How many thousands of people died in the Warsaw Uprising [in 1944]?