Smirking Chimp: Hitler's Shadow & the Coming Storm

[chomskysright]

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/article.php?sid=22068&mode=nested&order=0

John Chuckman: 'Hitler's shadow and the coming storm'
Posted on Monday, July 25 @ 09:25:03 EDT
This article has been read 1439 times.
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By John Chuckman

Despite many differences, there are striking parallels between Bush's invasion of Iraq and Hitler's invasion of Russia, and understanding these parallels serves to warn of the coming storm Bush is calling down upon all of us.

Hitler's decision to invade Russia was a horrific turning point in history, certainly the most consequential decision of the twentieth century and likely the most destructive in all of history. We still live with some of its terrible results.

In material terms, America's invasion of Iraq cannot be compared to the invasion of Russia. Germany took on a gigantic opponent, arrogantly regarded as its inferior in civilization and technology.

America's invasion was of a country with one-twelfth its population and, of more importance from a military point of view, with roughly one-twelfth its per capita income. America's tiny victim was sick, too, with water systems, electricity, and other vital infrastructure demolished by the first Gulf War, ten years of sporadic bombing by U.S. planes supposedly enforcing a no-fly zone, and a cruel embargo which took countless lives.



Germany greatly underestimated Russia's strength. Hitler said privately it would all be over in three weeks. Naturally, with the prevailing ethos of "working towards the Fuehrer," more accurate assessments had a limited constituency. Besides encountering what must rank as the most heroic human resistance in history, the Germans were shocked to find that the Russians were not quite so backward after all, the T-34 tank for example proving superior to much of German armor. The invasion of Russia gave us history's most terrible battle, Stalingrad, and its greatest tank battle, Kursk. It left 27 million Soviets dead, a loss that dwarfs the loss of any other country in any war.

The military capability of Iraq was grotesquely over-stated before America's invasion. Iraq's actual capabilities were well known to a number of experts, including weapons inspectors, intelligence services, and a number of international agencies and governments - not just its lack of sophisticated weapons but the terrible state of its basic infrastructure and the sheer physical exhaustion of its people. Informed voices were literally drowned out by propaganda and manipulation. Skewed editorials, planted news stories, deliberately provocative opinion pieces, forged evidence, and phony expert books tumbled from all the outlets of America's Ministry of Truth to make the declared enemy seem far more menacing than he was.

[politicaholic]

1. Fucking A! Can we please stop with the Nazi comparisons?!

This is truely juvinile. If I wanted I could compare what's going on with any point in history. Here's the difference, Bush isn't a nutcase ex-convict that wrote his whole plan and published it in jail for all to read.

[woodsprite]

2. Nah, in *'s case, that would be the PNAC'ers role. n/t

[unrepuke]

4. PNAC. Wasn't that published?

[TankLV]

16. Yep - just like "Mine Kampf"

Opps 0- ANOTHER strong similarity!

These are too easy.

Guess it hurts the apologists when we successfully do this!

[norml]

5. Anytime anyone acts in any way Nazi like, it's fair game to point it out.

Why else was the Soup Nazi called the Soup Nazi?

[wli]

7. Scarcely. The parallels are so striking it's coming from everywhere.

And besides, Operation Paperclip, Klaus Barbie under Reagan, Reichstag Fire vs. 9/11, Bush family history, and more all tie them in.

[chomskysright]

8. true, Bush doesn't have the brains to write Mein Kampf

[CitizenRob]

13. Michael Savage is demanding that muslims be put in

concentration camps, along with other "liberal" groups, on his national right wing radio talk show "The Savage Nation." It sure sounds to me like Naziism is a fare comparison that we would all be smart to take seriously.

[truth2power]

14. Bush / Hitler parallels.

Draws them in each paragraph.

[sojourner]

15. PNAC and DUI, AWOL? Bush family $$ and political pull kept him out of jail

Once 9/11 occured and I observed 1) the administration's behavior and 2) the media's behavior, I (accurately) predicted the bush agenda and the actions that have been taken since then, based simply on my own gut feeling - I think it's the corporatism that is one of the big markers...plus the dehumanizing of various groups (muslims, democrats, immigrants). That was before I found DU, too.

I don't have a whole lot of hope for the US. Sadly. Because just as when Hitler carried out his plans - nobody wants to believe it is possible. I fully expect that until PNAC carries out some of its more terrifying goals, people will continue to deny the parallels. And by then it will be too damn late...(although as I already mentioned, it may already be so).

[seriousstan]

3. Not LBN....by a long shot.

[norml]

6. Yes, it really is more of an editorial.

I hope the original poster reposts it there and other places.

I fully agree with this editorial.

[K-W]

9. Vietnam or the USSR in Afghanistan are much better comparisons. EOM

[Robeson]

10. Good editorial. Thanks for posting. Also liked the quote at the end....

...

"War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small Œinside‚ group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes."

"I spent 33 years in the Marines. Most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism."

-- USMC Major General Smedley Butler

[ptolle]

12. Smedley

One of the few marines, the others mostly being personal friends, viet vets like myself, whom I trust.You ought to include a link to the whole speech(wasn't it)? wherein Smedley names the banking houses and corps like standard oil for whom he was a leg-breaker, enforcer and bagman.All around interesting character especially the episode where he thwarted the American Liberty League's desire to stage a coup d'etat against FDR.
Thanks. Now more than ever People need to be reminded what a fine old warrior like Smedley thought of the whole enterprise.

[Nothing Without Hope]

11. I think a truer parallel would come if they invade IRAN as they want to

Like Russia for Hitler, Iran is a far more dangerous enemy to invade. Like the invasion of Iran would be, Hitler's Russian adventure was the product of hubris and insanity.

There is no question that the top neocons and some of the top Israeli officials have been pushing relentlessly for "regime change" in Iran. I also believe they would be willing to use nuclear weapons in such an invasion. The only question is: how far would they go to get the backing for it?

Jerome Corsi and others have been telling everyone they can find that Iran will nuke the US soon unless they are stopped. Corsi especially likes to talk about a dirty bomb set off in NY City and savors the horrible details of how it would kill and maim people at different distances from ground zero:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1768708

Putting it together, I have to wonder if the Bush Administration and its worldwide co-conspirators are planning to set off a nuclear 9/11 in order to get the backing for their desired war with Iran. Oh, I think they'd probably try a lesser attack first, say an aircraft carrier destroyed by an "iranian" bombing and/or "Iranian" terror attacks in US cities, but I don't see any sign of reason or ethics that might keep them from nuclear-bombing their own people to get what they want. Do you? I'd sleep better if someone could make a good argument against this.