As a Jew, Mendelssohn thinks it right to Cross the T’s and Dot the I’s, as one can be certain that the ill-intentioned will throng to the press and electronic media to blacken the General’s good standing.
Mendelssohn has known the General for seven or eight years. Initially, we exchanged by e-mail – more rarely on the telephone – on strategic issues. However, owing to the General’s extremely, er, colourful statements on the so-called “Jewish” question and “conspiracy”, Mendelssohn asked for explanations. He readily found:
that the General entertained neither hate nor contempt for any race, religion, ethnic group or nationality on this earth,
- that it was the misdeeds of the Jabotinskians and their ilk, the ghastly end-game of which now plays out before our eyes, that led him to occasional, furious outbursts,
- that his raison d’être was to battle injustice, no matter where or against whom it be perpetrated.
- All men, every nation, concerned him equally.
Tossing aside the formality of rank and prestige – “Call me Dominique!” he would cry – the General displayed the wit, humour and vivacity of a youth of 20.
Still reeling from the shock of his death, and bitter as it is, the message is CARRY ON.
To the Memory of General Dominique Delawarde
by Phil Broq – original French here.
Through J.M. Vernochet, I have just learnt that General Dominique Delawarde died suddenly on May 11th – a grievous blow. An outstanding officer, a committed intellectual, throughout his life General Delawarde showed himself to be a paragon of military honour and rigourous strategic thought. His death… leaves an indelible mark on those who will believe in truth and in the sovereign nation.
For Truth and Country
Born at Laon in Picardy, General Delawarde fought in the Chasseurs alpins (Light Mountain Infantry) and in the Foreign Legion, two elite corps where his self-discipline, humanity and bravery came to the fore. A graduate of the famed Saint-Cyr Academy, he later headed the French Liaison Officers’ corps in the USA, where he lived part of the year after retiring from active duty. His best-known assignment was in defence of Mount Igman – sole overland access to Sarajevo under siege (1994-1995) – where he commanded the 7th Chasseurs Alpins bataillon, thereby saving thousands of lives.
Besides his feats of arms, Delawarde held a number of critical positions, as head of the “Situation-Renseignement-Guerre électronique” Intelligence Bureau for General Staff Operational Planning. Charged with oversight of the 24 Land Army Academies (CoFAT), where he trained generations of officers. On a number of occasions, he was decorated, inter alia as Officier de la Légion d’Honneur, Commandeur de l’Ordre National du Mérite, US Meritorious Service Medal.
After retiring from the service, General Delawarde entered the public arena, publishing articles and analyses on geopolitics, military and diplomatic matter – more especially, on Palestine – and on the new multipolarity. A sharp pen, a critical mind, attracting admiration and raising hackles, since he would put up neither with injustice nor with official stone-walling… He was wont to rip open the curtain on the murky background to political decisions, on foreign meddling with France’s affairs, and on the collusion… between official bodies, finance/business interests and the mainstream media.
Wielding the pen as sword, Dominique Delawarde… often found himself quite alone vis à vis officialdom… his stand on the struggles in the Middle East, on East-West relations and on the Great Powers’ role in unleashing worldwide instability, was hardly theoretical : it was an act of resistance. As he saw it, the world once understood, one must defend it.
May General Delawarde’s memory remain… as a call to our own conscience. Unstained by personal ambition, he strove for truth, justice and loyalty to France, which he preferred to basking in a cosy retreat in the glow of past honours and medals.
May he inspire in us everyone, the duty to act boldly, independently, clear-sightedly, and never to relinquish our beliefs.
Strutting in uniform as a stand-in for serving one’s country was not for him: when the pillars of existence crumble, it means looking straight into the maelstrom of reality.
The funeral service was held on 16th May at ten-thirty in the morning, in the Church of La Grigonnais near Nantes.
