Preventive war was recommended by General Bernhardi and
other illustrious patriots. It would be dangerous indeed to defer the
declaration of war until the enemies had fortified themselves so that
they should be the ones to make war. Besides, to the Germans what kind
of deterrents could law and other fictions invented by weak nations
possibly be? . . . No; they had the Power, and Power creates new laws.
If they proved to be the victors, History would not investigate too
closely the means by which they had conquered. It was Germany that was
going to win, and the priests of all cults would finally sanctify with
their chants the blessed war--if it led to triumph.
"We are not making war in order to punish the Servian regicides, nor to
free the Poles, nor the others oppressed by Russia, stopping there in
admiration of our disinterested magnanimity. We wish to wage it because
we are the first people of the earth and should extend our activity over
the entire planet. Germany's hour has sounded. We are going to take
our place as the powerful Mistress of the World, the place which Spain
occupied in former centuries, afterwards France, and England to-day.
What those people accomplished in a struggle of many years we are going
to bring about in four months. The storm-flag of the Empire is now going
to wave over nations and oceans; the sun is going to shine on a great
slaughter.
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