Nonsense?
Yes.
Everyone has a dark side.......every soul on this planet.
I didn't say I didn't have a dark side, or that people that are Republican or conservative don't have dark sides. But my darkside isn't anything like the Nazi's or Hitler and neither is that of the vast majority of republicans or conservatives, or the Republican party as a party.
Accordingly, Abu Ghraib, Gitmo and Afghanistan happened under Bush
Abu Ghraib was an abuse but it wasn't a Republican (or a Democrat) abuse. It wasn't ordered by Bush, it wasn't a plan by Carl Rove... Also the abuse was not close to the scale or severity of what the Nazis did. Gitmo in general was a good idea. It seems there may have been some abuses there as well but this is less certain. If there have been the same point applies.
Afghanistan? Intervening in Afghanistan was a good and important thing.
Bush made a pre emptive strike against Iraq.......Hitler used similar tactics.
No. Hitler invaded countries to take them over and control them, not to reduce a major threat by them. And Hitler was not enforcing a ceasefire agreement that these countries had violated for years.
Bush's policies favor a rather small group of Americans.
That is neither true nor relevant. Many of Bush's policies favor the country as a whole, but even those that do favor a small group aren't at all Nazi like. Most of the pork and special interest subsidies that have gone out under every administration for generations have favored a small group. Does that mean we have had an long string of nazi like presidents?
Hitler ascended to power under questionable circumstances; so did Bush.
The circumstances under which Bush came to power where not very questionable. He won a majority of the electoral votes. In any case "questionable" is a rather generic statement. The actual circumstances where very different.
Hitler complained that Germany had been treated poorly by other countries and appealed to German nationalism; Bush has made similar comments and appealed to American nationalism.
Politicians of every political persuasion make statements about the greatness of their country. Bush is one of them, but so are much Democratic party candidates. Bush did not argue that the US has been abused by the rest of the world.
Hitler appealed to the greatness of the "German race", which he considered superior to all others. He also campaigned against "inferior races" and eventually killed them in great numbers. Bush has not made any such racist policies or statements.
Are there enough similarities to be unsettling?
No.
After all, it was the Bushies that were talking about suspending elections this year.
The Bush's were talking about contingency plans if there where a massive wave of terrorist attacks across the country, on a scale that would make 9/11 seem small. Bush never did and never will propose actually suspending elections.
Stalin and Gandhi both had many similar traits. They both where human, both male, both leaders, both had two eyes, both are now dead.
Oh yes, lets take it down to the level of ridiculous. Its a very convenient way to make a serious subject go away.
That is the only level on which Bush and Hitler are similar.
Tim |
