Does anybody have an audio link on this?
Thanks!

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0204-22.htm

I appreciate Duncan Stewart’s well made argument that there are few governments who come close to the level of atrocities which the the Nazis perpetrated (Stalinist Russia is right up there for one).  However, it needs to be noted that Hitler did not establish Auschwitz in his first few years of power.  His evil intent was apparent but was implemented on a much smaller scale at first.

I have been saying to people for 3 or 4 years that contemplating a visit to the U.S. right now would feel a lot like what I imagine a visit to Germany in the 1930’s felt like.  The perception outside the U.S. is of a good people who have been duped and dominated by a radical group bent on enriching themselves and holding on to power at all costs (to other people anyway - whether they be compatriots or foreigners). 

The thing about the U.S. that is very different from Nazi Germany in the 30’s is not the scale of atrocities, restriction of civil liberty or military imperialism (I think these things would be similar).  The thing that is very different is that the U.S. Democracy is still intact ... one would expect that a criminal kleptocracy would be voted out of power.

That is why the rest of the world was horrified to see the last presidential election unfold.  It was inconceivable to non-Americans that Bush could be re-elected ... but the voting public must have been subjected to the full force of the American media and political advertising so that they voted in direct opposition to their own self-interest in almost all cases (notwithstanding a few rich Texans who stood to personally gain).

The real problem then is the media (i.e. an informed voting public) and the “checks and balances” which the American founding fathers astutely copied from the French.  Without an informed public or effective checks-and-balances there is a risk that the U.S. is indeed headed toward Nazi or Stalinist levels of evil.  No-one in the world wants to see that.

Hugo Chavez a “Hitler”??  Please!  This is just straight out of the Goebbels playbook.  Associate propaganda targets with negative cultural icons regardless of truth ... it makes them easier to demonise, hate and hence to discriminate.  Chavez has far less in common with Hitler than Bush ... but yes, Duncan, the U.S. is a long way short of the horrors of the Holocaust.  Let’s hope it never gets anywhere near there.

Both comparisons are laughable and are sad commentaries on the abilities of both American leaders and their constituents to present valid historical comparison. The term “nazi” and comparisons to Hitler, are used much too loosely and frequently today, and before long, the brutal realities of the atrocities perpetrated by the German National Socialists will be made trivial by the constant political comparison with regimes and governments who do not even come close to the horrible repressions of the NS regime.

Are concentration camps forming in the United States or Venezuela?(and please to not insult the survivors of the Holocaust by comparing Gitmo to Auschwitz.) Are students being summarily executed for protesting against Bush or Chavez? 

Increase your intellect…read. You might want to start with the basics; something like the Diary of Anne Frank . Then find something on The White Rose, a German student anti-nazi movement that ended with the beheadings of its leaders.

Both Rumsfeld and those of you who have left comments here so quick to label Bush a Nazi, have a lot to learn.

Whether you believe Bush to be a dangerous ultra-conservative, or Chavez to be a direct danger to democracy, there are ways to argue those points without elevating them to the scale of mass murder and atrocity committed by the Nazis.  You really should choose your historical comparisons more carefully.

Its cute how the imperial neocon-one who’s most cherished thought is the nullification of posse comitatus-would cast himself as a defender of democracy.

http://www.light-to-dark.com/urban_pacification.html

Regards,

Pitt

A member of the most Hitler-esque regime in the world currently in existence compares a Venezualian president to Hitler?  Really the pot calling the kettle black.  To my knowledge Chavez hasn’t started a war against a country that posed no threat to it, bombed its people, or instituted a system of torture, cronyism, theft and lies.  Chavez to my knowledge hasn’t falsified intel or outed intel operatives, or begun the systematic dismantling of his country’s constitution.  Chavez to my knowledge hasn’t claimed kinglike powers.

At some point during my lifelong “enlightenment” process I came to understand that ANY LEADER OR ADMINISTRATION THAT TELLS THE TRUTH ABOUT ANYTHING is not long for that position.

Conclusion? To gain and maintain political power requires an ability to consistently tell boldfaced lies and make every one of them sound like profound truth.

The USA administration is no different in this respect than any other on this planet that I know anything about. Every one of them is spying and lying and conniving and plotting and scheming, and turning to the cameras and reporters and DENYING they’re doing any of it.

And we’re supposed to RESPECT and HONOR them? What a complete farce. From the President on down they’re all OBVIOUSLY lying. Of course “it’s in the national interest and for national security.” Since they have all the correct info and we don’t, it’s impossible to challenge them. We’re fed the lies on the nightly news and then go off believing what we’re told.

Donald Rumsfeld is a master storyteller who has learned how to play fast and loose with the truth and make it sound good enough so that most unthinking persons “buy it.”

Frankly, I believe any successful politician sooner or later loses the ability to tell the difference between a lie and the truth. They all say whatever will support their own views and objectives. If it happens to actually be the truth, that’s just a coincidental bonus.

I seem to remember that Mr. Rumsfeld also compared Osama Ben Laden to Hitler, it’s quite possible that he compared Saddam Husseing to Hitler too.

I guess that explains why we’re loosing in Iraq then, Mr. Rumsfeld is still fighting WWII.

I wonder then if Mr. Rumsfeld could answer this question. If we loose democracy at home, because of your PNAC agenda, are we still going to try and bring democracy to the rest of the world?

It’s very much like the pot calling the kettle black…

The voice of the people is worrisome?  I can hear the the Texas dauphin on the phone now, “Ah, hola, General Pinochet, we might have a new job for you?” To this administration, the voice of the people might as well be farts.

Bush was also elected legally…
Donald Rumsfeld was not…
Yet it is Donald Rumsfeld and his cabinet war hauks tha menaces the world as a NAZI himself!

What country has Chavez threaten or invade? What countries has Rumsfield threaten or invade?… how many has he currently ocupied?

Really, who is the NAZI here...?

Rumsfeld remarks that Chavez, like Hitler, was elected legally…

Can the Bush administration say the same?

Are they jealous? Or what?

Hey, Rummy! “Democracy is messy.” Remember?

(By the way, nice work by the World Can’t Wait protester at Rummy’s briefing, as seen on Democracy Now! Feb. 03)

To say Chavez was elected legally, and compare that to Hitler?  The nerve of these guys like Rumsfeld!  Bush and his cabal were never elected legally.  So does that compare them to Robinhood?  Hardly.
Rumsfeld, go suck an egg.