The Mark Weber Report

The Sound of Music is a popular, tuneful and enduring American film. But its portrayal of history, and especially its depiction of the 1938 union of Austria with the German Reich is a gross distortion of reality. In fact, the vast majority of Austrians joyfully welcomed the union (Anschluss) of their homeland with National Socialist Germany, and strongly, even enthusiastically, supported the Hitler government.

How unique is the United States? Is the American way of life superior to all others? Is America specially blessed by God? In this broadcast, Weber looks at origins and consequences of the notion of “American exceptionalism.” But first he provides an update on the IHR and efforts to disrupt a recent meeting at which Weber and David Irving spoke. In spite of threats of protest demonstration and intimidation, the event was a success. At this event, British historian Irving spoke about Heinrich Himmler, and Weber spoke about Joseph Goebbels.

Weber looks at major trends in American social, economic and political life that are symptoms of a society on the path to ruin. He cites Out of Control, a book by Zbigniew Brzezinski, a Polish-born American scholar and statesman. In this book, published 18 years ago, Brzezinski warns of America’s moral and ethical decline, the corrosive role of American television and motion pictures, and much more. Weber and Bzezinski stress that American society today lacks any meaningful moral-ethical foundation. Bzezinski writes of the “supremacy of decadence and hedonism” in today’s America, where “self-gratification is the norm.” A society that “puts a premium on individuals self-satisfaction is a community threatened by dissolution.” Among the dangerous trends in this country, Brzezinski cites the nation’s enormous indebtedness, poor quality secondary education, a deteriorating social infrastructure, “a truly parasitic obsession with litigation,” “widespread crime and violence,” and “the massive propagation of moral corruption.”

Weber reports on a recent wave of smears, intimidation and harassment against the IHR by the Jewish Defense Organization and other hate groups. This is the most vicious targeting of the IHR in years.

He also talks about the simplistic, “shortcut” thinking of many Americans, who believe that things can be turned around by “returning” to the US Constitution. What’s crucially important in a nation, he says, is not its constitution, but rather the quality and character of its people and leadership, and the society’s basic values, ideology and worldview. “The health of the people is the supreme law” is the paramount principle of a healthy society.

Many people believe that America’s prosperity and preeminence in the world in the 1950-1980 era was due to the supposed superiority of its constitutional, social-political system. In fact, this period of prosperity and preeminence is largely because the US is the only developed nation to emerge from World War II with its industry and infrastructure intact. This is the only important country that had not been battered or destroyed in the war.

Mark Weber first explains why US military intervention in the Libya conflict is illegal and blatantly violates the US constitution. This is not a new or unique practice. Such lawlessness has been characteristic of US foreign policy for decades, and is part of the reason why so many people around the world regard the US government as two-faced, hypocritical and untrustworthy.

In part this lawlessness is an expression of the imperial pretentions of the US as a morally superior world policeman. Moreover, the leaders of both major US political parties have a long record of putting partisan interests ahead of the law, and of the national interest.

Responding to a question from an IHR supporter, Weber explains why Germany lost World War II, or, more specifically, why it was defeated by the Soviet Union. He shows that Hitler and Germany’s military leadership badly underestimated the colossal scale and scope of Soviet military power. In that regard, he cites Hitler’s own statements on this, as well as analysis of astute historians.

Mark Weber talks about the recent US military intervention in the Libya conflict. This foolish and dangerous involvement, he says, furthers no authentic American interest, and has no constitutional authority. And by launching it without debate or congressional approval, President Obama is violating pledges he made as a candidate Although he justifies it as necessary to save Libyan lives, the US did not intervene when many more civilians were killed, for example, in Israel’s military invasions of neighboring Lebanon. Contrary to what many conservatives claim, the policies of President Obama and his administration show remarkable continuity with those of his predecessors, both Democratic and Republican.

Weber cites lies and deceit by earlier presidents to generate support for war by gullible Americans. He recalls lies by President Roosevelt to justify his 1941 order to attack German and Italian ships on the high seas, in crass violation of international law. Weber also cites President Johnson’s deceit about the 1964 “Gulf of Tonkin” incident, which he used to secure congressional blank check authorization for unlimited US military action in Southeast Asia. Weber also speaks about Lyndon Johnson’s long record of mendacity, recalling, for example, his fraud in a 1948 US Senate election.

In this debut broadcast, Mark Weber talks about how Americans’ self-image and prevailing view of the US and themselves has changed drastically over the past 60 years, as reflected in the country’s high school history textbooks. He quotes from the most popular and influential high school history textbook of the mid-twentieth century to show how very differently Americans regarded their country in the years before the “cultural revolution” of the 1960s, which promoted America as a universalist society. Weber also talks about the dangerous falsehood of “diversity” as a “strength,” the myth of World War II as the “good war,” the Jewish-Zionist grip on American US political life, and more.