E.U. Kommissar , Madame Sandra Kalniete
I was 14 and a half. My sin was to be a member of the middle class. When the secret police arrived , I had just laced up my new ballet shoes , so they became my footwear for the next Siberian winter . ( Hence the title of her poignant family memoir : " With Dancing Shoes In Siberian Snows” -H. )
The experience left me with a certain
clarity of principles .
It certainly did affect my outlook on Iraq , for I know how a totalitarian society functions.
When we were behind the Iron Curtain the world was completely indifferent to our fate and pretended that genocide was not going on. I strongly believe that the world had a right to intervene to save Iraq from it’s regime.
If it had intervened when fascism was taking root in Germany, maybe the bloodiest of wars could have been avoided.