John, my father-out-of-law, stayed with us earlier this year. One day he was home minding his grandson and answered a knock on the door. It was someone collecting money for the Red Cross. John told the collector, a young man, that the Red Cross had saved his life. He was a prisoner of war in Germany for the last year of WW2. They were dependent on Red Cross parcels to bring them enough rations to eat and the occasional letter from home. (Amazing that letters could get through in that state of total warfare.) They relied on Red Cross visits to keep conditions in the camp at a basic level of humanity.
The young man stared at him blankly. Probably a backpacker doing a charity job for the commission.
When John told us about this later, he was clearly saddened by the lack of response and understanding.
Now the US Republican Party is having second thoughts about the International Red Cross. Something to do with IRC criticisms of American treatment of prisoners (detainees) in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and Afghanistan.
John was not an American (Royal Marine, actually), but I know there were thousands of American soldiers who benefited from the activities of the Red Cross during that war - and the others that have followed.
The American Right is going down a very scary path.
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