The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to the point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism ~ ownership of government by an individual, by a group or any controlling private power: President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Psychologically, the Hitler/Bush comparison has been obvious to me for some time. Both deeply insecure men, troubled childhoods, addicted to power, messianic illusions of god given grandeur, barely contained repressed anger and incapable of empathy and compassion ~ except with their animals.
In that regard, I originally posted this on March 20th, 2005 and I note how it has proved to be prophetic.
It is almost inconceivable that the American public and the Democrats are buying into the mindset that Bush's illegal invasion of Iraq was right and that it is the seed for the spread of democracy throughout the region. The election in both Afghanistan and Iraq were micromanaged by the U.S. from the start with the obvious intention of maintaining a significant military presence in both countries.
This is Germany in the 1930's when Hitler's grand design was bought into by a sleeping German public ~ using the same propaganda techniques, moral righteousness and God condoning rhetoric being heard today.
“I BELIEVE that God wants me to be president.” George W. Bush
"I would like to thank Providence and the Almighty for choosing me of all people to be allowed to wage this battle for Germany," Adolf Hitler - Berlin March, 1936
“freedom and fear, justice and cruelty have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them.” George W. Bush
"Never in these long years have we offered any other prayer but this: Lord, grant to our people peace at home, and grant and preserve to them peace from the foreign foe!" : Adolph Hitler - Nuremberg Sept. 13, 1936.
"God is not on the side of any nation, yet we know He is on the side of justice. Our finest moments [as a nation] have come when we faithfully served the cause of justice for our own citizens, and for the people of other lands" George W. Bush
" If we pursue this way, if we are decent, industrious, and honest, if we so loyally and truly fulfill our duty, then it is my conviction that in the future as in the past the Lord God will always help us": Adolf Hitler, at the Harvest Thanksgiving Festival on the Buckeburg held on 3 Oct. 1937
One columnist got it right last year and it was Seumas Milne who wrote a brilliant column in the British Guardian:
"The claim that democracy is on the march in the Middle East is a fraud. It is not democracy, but the US military, that is on the march… What has actually taken place since 9/11 and the Iraq war is a relentless expansion of US control of the Middle East, of which the threats to Syria are a part. The Americans now have a military presence in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar -- and in not one of those countries did an elected government invite them in. Of course Arabs want an end to tyrannical regimes, most of which have been supported over the years by the US, Britain and France: that is the source of much anti-western Muslim anger. The dictators remain in place by U.S. license, which can be revoked at any time -- and managed elections are being used as another mechanism for maintaining pro-western regimes rather than spreading democracy."
Now let's take this Germany analogy one step further with the announcement last year that the pentagon has formally approved, in their latest strategic plan, preemptive attacks against nations thought to pose a threat to the United States.
Such a policy was categorically and without reservation condemned as a war crime on Nov. 21, 1945 by Mr. Justice Jackson at the Nuremberg Trials.
Against this gathering storm of radical right wing power consolidation and God driven and national security rationalized war fever, again very similar to Germany in the 1930's, I recommend Oliver Hirschbiegel's painstaking and provocative film/video on the last gasp of Hitler's Third Reich ~ DOWNFALL.
Hirschbiegel's moving and objective film makes Hitler and his fellow conspirators, Himmler, Goebbels, Speer and even Eva Braun frighteningly contemporary and plausible in their delusions of power and global empire building ~ while everything was deteriorating around them.
It was easy to visualize Cheney in his bunker with his protege Bush ~ along with Rice, Rumsfeld, Gonzales, Bolton and Wolfowitz ~ as they pored over their maps of middle east oil targets and domination ~ refusing to face the reality and consequences of their actions while the country slowly slipped into economic chaos outside their bunker.
Glenn Whipp, LA Daily News, called the film fascinating for it's depiction of the ordinariness of evil and writes " you have a picture of madness that could exist anyplace where blind belief in a leader transcends reality "
And therein lies my point ~ for the blind belief in Bush by the radical far right base of the Republican party and their Global empire building neocon agenda is already close to transcending reality ~ and the future of our constitution and Republic is at great risk.
We cannot afford to make this mistake again ~ and the world community, which has seen this moral blindness before, will not let us.
And we can no longer avoid our moral disgrace as this 4 minute video clearly reminds us ~
Allen L Roland
