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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bilow who wrote (7343)	10/24/2001 5:26:36 PM
From: Michael Watkins	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

If we'd left Hitler alone, by now his regime would undoubtedly have mellowed I don't know how we can extrapolate or draw those conclusions. Problem was, Hitler saw himself as a Messiah. Apparently he was comfortable playing God as well, given that he ordered the deaths of millions of civilians. He was a cunning manipulator, or worse, believed all his own press. “We were convinced that the people needs and requires this faith. We have therefore undertaken the fight against the atheistic movement, and that not merely with a few theoretical declarations: we have stamped it out.” ( Adolf Hitler, in a speech delivered in Berlin, October 24, 1933. ) “National Socialism has always affirmed that it is determined to take the Christian Churches under the protection of the State. For their part the churches cannot for a second doubt that they need the protection of the State, and that only through the State can they be enabled to fulfill their religious mission. Indeed, the churches demand this protection from the State.” [1933. Perhaps he was just smarter than the communists, or perhaps he recognized that a charismatic leader could co-opt religion to drive the people even further than a purely political leader. ] A few more choice quotes: "in driving out the Jews, I remind myself of Jesus in the temple." Mein Kampf: ""Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord." "Just like Christ, I have a duty to my own people...." "What Christ began," he observed, he, Hitler, "would complete." [eliminating all Jews from the world] And in a speech on 10 February 1933 he parodied the Lord's Prayer in promising that under him a new kingdom would come on earth, and that his would be "the power and the glory, Amen." He added that if he did not fulfill his mission, "you should then crucify me." "I go the way that Providence dictates for me with all the assurance of a sleepwalker. " -- Speech of 14 March 1936, Munich On one occasion an aide noted that "God does not let people look at the cards He holds" [Der liebe Gott Lasst sich nicht in seine Karten sehen]. Hitler immediately broke forth into such a paroxysm of fury that he himself feared a heart attack. BUT, he was an honest guy, right? ""Amongst the accusations which are directed against Germany in the so called democracies is the charge that the National Socialist State is hostile to religion. In answer to that charge I should like to make before the German people the following solemn declaration: 1. No one in Germany has in the past been persecuted because of his religious views, nor will anyone in the future be so persecuted..." However, if we take him at his words in M.K.: "To whom should propaganda be addressed? … It must be addressed always and exclusively to the masses… The function of propaganda does not lie in the scientific training of the individual, but in calling the masses' attention to certain facts, processes, necessities, etc., whose significance is thus for the first time placed within their field of vision. The whole art consists in doing this so skilfully that everyone will be convinced that the fact is real, the process necessary, the necessity correct, etc. But since propaganda is not and cannot be the necessity in itself … its effect for the most part must be aimed at the emotions and only to a very limited degree at the so-called intellect… it's soundness is to be measured exclusively by its effective result". (Main Kampf, Vol 1, Ch 6 and Ch 12) Whatever -- he arguably the most dangerous leader of the 1900's and showed no sign of mellowing. Leaving him alone was not an option.