- While I find those images on the Internet of a blunt
little mustache digitally-scribbled onto President Bush's upper lip feeble
and unhelpful, still, there are parts of Bush's character and behavior
that strikingly resemble at least one major biographer's interpretation
of Hitler. Ian Kershaw's two-volume life of Hitler puts great emphasis
on his being a driving high-stakes gambler - with innate, animal-cunning
about human psychology, few gifts of statesmanship or strategy, and little
systematic learning - attributing most of his success and all of his failure
to his compulsive quality.
-
- When, for example, Bush waged his ferocious post-election
pursuit of legitimacy through threats and court actions, finally securing
appointment to office by America's Supreme Court, it resembled the way
Hitler, never actually elected, worked ferociously behind the scenes and
on the streets at a time of great political instability to secure appointment
as Chancellor by President von Hindenburg.
-
- Several observers have commented that Bush's recent stunt
of flying to the deck of an aircraft carrier in order to make a televised
speech might well have been copied directly from Hitler's flight to the
gigantic Nuremberg rally, his plane dramatically circling in descent towards
a million people gathered in barbarian tribute, his purpose being to make
a filmed speech. Whether Bush's crowd consciously followed the script set
down by Hitler nearly seventy years ago matters less than that the thinking
is so similar, with the manipulation of dramatic, militaristic props for
propaganda being identical.
-
- Bush never goes anywhere where his stage crew has not
first assembled giant flags as background. He always wears a sizeable American-flag
pin on his lapel. This kind of totemic, obsessive use of flags was absolutely
characteristic of Hitler.
-
- Hitler was a troubled, difficult person, but there is
no evidence of any genuine insanity or psychosis (see Dr. Fritz Redlich's
excellent study, "Hitler, Diagnosis of a Destructive Prophet").
It is precisely this fact that made him, and makes those like him, all
the more dangerous. It is easy to dismiss a genuine lunatic.
-
- Given any circumstances other than those of the unique
and troubled period in which he embraced German politics, Hitler would
have been an utter failure, likely to be laughed off the stage with his
sputtering, eye-bulging speech and fantasy claims. He had never, except
for extremely brief and intermittent times, before entering politics in
the revolutionary ruin that was post-war Germany, made an honest living.
-
- There is a close parallel here with Bush. Except when
friends of his powerful father made attractive, low-risk, undemanding opportunities
available to him, young Bush was a failure. He demonstrated no business
acumen, no academic application, and he did a lot of aimless drifting,
much like Hitler's time in Vienna before the First World War. There are
totally unexplained periods in Bush's early adult life, an extraordinary
thing for an American national public figure.
-
- Even as governor of Texas, Bush showed no skill other
than the kind of animal cunning one associates with some of the nation's
shabbiest politics. Many do not realize that the office of governor of
Texas, despite sounding important, is a relatively weak office, so the
people putting Bush forward at the time took a small risk of his doing
any serious damage.
-
- Bush was not a national figure when he was put up for
the Republican presidential nomination. Yet, suddenly, he appeared on the
national stage, pockets bulging with $77 million in campaign contributions,
an amount that could render even Kermit the Frog a formidable opponent
in America's phony, advertising- and marketing-drenched politics. Of course,
as quickly as these funds were depleted, they were topped up again.
-
- The support of German industrialists was an important
part of Hitler's being able to sustain his slow rise to power. Many of
these business people thought they would heavily profit from the success
of the odd, theatrical little man they bankrolled. The one absolute certainty
was that Germany under Hitler would rearm, massively and quickly, with
lots of profitable contracts coming available. Bush's measures for defense
and security after 9/11, almost instantly swelled to tumor-like masses,
offer an unprecedented opportunity for well-positioned people to make new
fortunes.
-
- Bush's apparent ability to be charming face-to-face has
been publicized by insiders wishing to humanize his public image. Well,
that is a characteristic Hitler possessed in abundance: on the one hand,
he could intimidate people with fits of horrifying anger, and yet, as many
attested, he could be utterly charming. He could order wholesale murder
and yet have a gracious, polite tea with his hardworking secretaries.
-
- Of course, the sense of charm assumed you did not have
to spend great periods of time with Hitler as did the captive members of
his immediate party entourage. For them, Hitler was reduced to a boring,
repetitive self-proclaimed expert on everything who insisted on discussing
everything, endlessly. One can only imagine the tedious conversations of
a Bush comfortable with his cronies over a charred cow down in Crawford.
We actually got an unintended glimpse of this private world when the BBC
"accidentally" ran some television shots of Bush before a big
speech sharing the kind of gestures and comments to smiling flunkies one
might expect from a small-town, grade-school basketball coach.
-
- Bush has demonstrated his capacity for vicious anger
a number of times, despite his handlers working very hard to hide this
from the public. His response to the nomination challenge of John McCain
was manic. His response to the rightful and fitting challenges of France
or Germany to his Iraqi policies has been ugly, with pathetic factotum,
Colin Powell, given the job of announcing various gibes, slights, and threats
in the aftermath (Harry Belafonte's description of Powell, I regret to
say, has proved devastatingly accurate).
-
- The closest parallel to Hitler's behavior was in Bush's
approach to Iraq. It is clear that he was determined - despite all facts
contrary to his claims, despite the heroic efforts of weapons inspectors,
despite the voice of most of the world's diplomatic community, and despite
demonstrations by millions - to invade Iraq. The litany of false and even
irrelevant claims made over and over combined with his lack of shame or
embarrassment when found out time and again, closely mimics a behavior
pattern of Hitler who more or less invented the "big lie" technique.
-
- Even more closely resembling Hitler was Bush's insane
rush towards a huge, high-stakes gamble on quick success in Iraq. He displayed
not an ounce of statesmanship. It mattered not at all that he put the UN,
NATO, and the EU through a crisis and embarrassed longstanding allies to
get what he wanted. Had the invasion bogged down into bloody street-fights
and large numbers of Americans been killed, Bush could not have survived
the political results. This was the purest obsessive, go-for-broke gamble.
-
- What we witnessed leading up to the invasion bore uncanny
similarities to the Munich crisis of 1938, but not the ones so many American
commentators point to about a weak-willed Chamberlain appeasing a brutal
dictator. People seem to forget Bush was making the threats, not Hussein.
-
- Hitler was going to invade the Czechs, and that was that,
but he was willing to toy with war-weary Western statesmen, to gain a bit
of time or psychological advantage, and to appear open to argument before
hurling his divisions over the border. So, too, Bush paused in invading
Iraq, allowing Western statesmen to argue their case a bit and make various
proposals, but he never listened to them, only hoping he might gain a few
more allies, a shred of legitimacy, or a bit of psychological advantage.
-
- This provides a very good example of how we do not learn
from history. We are most of us always looking for exactly the same lesson
from a vaguely similar historical situation, much as generals are said
always prepared to fight the last war. But history, as has been accurately
observed, is a flowing river which is not the same when touched a second
time. Current events are never quite parallel with those of an earlier
time despite superficial similarities. However, human character, patterns
of behavior, and human interactions are things that may be profitably studied,
being constant enough to make valid comparisons over time.
-
- Here, too, is an example of how history can be manipulated
to abuse political opponents. Critics on the left, in opposing the invasion
of Iraq, have been accused of supporting a dictator. This is nonsense,
of course, but like many bits of propaganda that become lodged into day-to-day
understanding through endless repetition on television and in newspapers,
it is nevertheless a powerful nonsense.
-
- Too many people do not understand that the preponderance
of forces in Germany before the Second World War were for peace. Hitler
sometimes spoke of peace eloquently, but, as we now know, he had a rather
odd definition of the word. When it looked like Germany was on the brink
of war, great waves of despair went through Germany. All the bands and
panoply of Nazi propaganda could not cover up people's sullen reaction
displayed even under dictatorship.
-
- But when Hitler quickly defeated Poland and then quickly
defeated France, the mood in Germany immediately changed. Hitler had achieved
a relatively bloodless victory of stunning proportions. He became a hero,
a national savior. And so with Bush's massive, high-tech assault on pathetic
little Iraq. Anti-war feelings and demonstrations did not rise so suddenly
at the start of the much greater conflict in Vietnam, but with a quick,
safe victory (safe for Americans, that is), Bush has become something of
a shining figure. So much so, that at a recent dinner, a single dinner,
Bush raised $18 million in campaign funds.
-
- Hitler's manipulation of the idea of peace is paralleled
in Bush's manipulation of the idea of justice. Both are complete distortions.
Bush's genuine feeling for justice was perhaps best captured during the
election campaign with his smug, joking response to a question about a
soul on death row in Texas. For those with acute perceptions, still not
dulled on a steady diet of synthetic emotions and cardboard ideas from
television and Hollywood, there could be no surer sign of how potentially
dangerous this man is.
-
-
- Comment
-
- From Michael Shore - Isreal
- m3636s@netvision.net.il
- 5-27-3
-
- The Bushes funded Hitler in WW ll and made a huge "bloody"
fortune. They're just following the same Hitler/Nazi model that they already
tested and used in WW ll.
-
- The main troubling thing in this whole scenario is that
Hitler didn't have thousands of missles with nuclear warheads. BUSH DOES!!!
And he already has declared that he is ready to use them.
-
- An ex-alcoholic?, cocaine freak, FAKE born again Christian
with thousands of nuclear warheads is now in the White House. Good luck
America and the world.
-
- When is everyone going to wake up and stop the Bushes
and their perverted gang of killers and thieves???
-
- Michael Shore
-
-
-
- Comment
-
- From Robert
- 5-30-3
-
- There has been a lot said lately about how similar George
Bush is to Adolph Hitler. But really there are many differences.
-
- 1. Hitler had a moustache. Bush does not.
-
- 2. Hitler's military record was of a high quality. Bush's
military record suggests incompetence, irresponsibility, and political
intervention by his father to prevent adverse action being taken against
him due to numerous violations of military procedures and duties.
-
- 3. Hitler was sentenced to prison but should not have
been. Bush should have been sentenced to prison but was not.
-
- 4. Hitler wrote a bookthat sold ten million copies during
his lifetime, which has never gone out of print, and which millions of
people still read today. Bush has not yet written anything remarkable or
memorable.
-
- 5. Hitler never accepted payment for serving in office.
Bush receives a large salary as President. Both men were about equally
rich.
-
- 6. Hitler was never known to slight the rights of German
citizens. Bush, at a public appearance asked a member of the audience -who
had pointed out the unpopularity of one of Bush's policies- replied, "Who
cares what you think?"
-
- 7. Hitler was not in favor of using the resources of
the citizens of his own nation to support the survival and success of a
people whose activities and stated desires would disrupt or destroy his
nation and its native people. Bush surrounds himself with people whose
central purpose is the survival and success of Israel, and he supports
and enacts their ideas and actions with willing compliance.
-
- 8. Hitler worked to correct an injustice that had been
committed against the people of his nation in a previous war. Bush misrepresented
facts in order to fight an unjustifiable war against a defenseless people
who had done nothing against him, or against US citizens.
-
- 9. Hitler was in favor of his people improving their
genetic stock by means of making intentional breeding choices. Bush does
not believe there is any necessity for white people to survive as a genetic
group.
-
- 10. Regardless of whether you believe the actions of
Hitler were right or wrong, his actions required substantial courage, self-discipline,
and determination. The actions Bush has taken are those which are easiest
and politically most expedient to his own selfish purpose, and to the financial
interests of his friends.
-
|
