Hitler/Bush Parallels?

Hitler was never elected to power by a majority. He only received 30.1% of the vote in the election of 1932, Through a series of manoeuvres he was eventually designated chancellor in 1933, then declared a state of emergency, and ruled Germany by dictate from that time on:

http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0403a.asp

I strongly recommend a read of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, by William Shirer mentioned in this website, which to my knowledge is still the classic account of the Nazi horrors. The reason that I mention Hitler here is that dictators ever since have imitated the Nazi tactics: brutal rule, murder and torture of enemies, “big lie” propaganda games to con the public, etc. And, yes, there are some echoes in the Bush presidency. Guess who is his Joseph Goebbels? Of course this parallel is somewhat exaggerated. But lest we forget, the Nazi strength lay in funding by major corporate powers, e.g. I. G.. Farben combined with a Lumpenproletariat of racist unskilled workers facing the inflation and unemployment induced by the crash of 1929.

The drive for imperial domination of the resources of others — so-called Lebensraum (Living room) and the Drang nach Osten (drive to the East) have parallels in the neocon compulsion to impose U.S. military domination on the Middle East. And echoes there certainly are of an attack on a specific religion — a designated ‘enemy’. I doubt that it can happen here. But the parallels are there and not to be taken lightly. Will Iran be our next evil ‘enemy’ to be attacked — and possibly our own ultimate Stalingrad? Certainly the rest of the world notes these parallels. Hopefully the U.S. will regain its national sanity with the next presidential election.

“A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope.” (Livy cited by Machiavelli)

By Ed Kent