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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jlallen who wrote (511767)	12/17/2003 2:53:23 PM
From: Cola Can	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

Only a VERY dishonest person would compare GWB to Hitler... You believe everything Bush tells you, don't you. Question nothing. Goose step to the polls and be a loyal party member.

To: jlallen who wrote (511767)	12/17/2003 2:59:41 PM
From: Bob	Respond to of 769670

Godwin's Law Godwin's Law prov. [Usenet] "As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one." There is a tradition in many groups that, once this occurs, that thread is over, and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost whatever argument was in progress. Godwin's Law thus practically guarantees the existence of an upper bound on thread length in those groups. However there is also a widely- recognized codicil that any intentional triggering of Godwin's Law in order to invoke its thread-ending effects will be unsuccessful.

To: jlallen who wrote (511767)	12/17/2003 4:07:34 PM
From: cnyndwllr	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

Jlallen, when you write; "Only a VERY dishonest person would compare GWB to Hitler...," you illustrate only your lap dog devotion to Bush and the current administration. Can't you think of ANY comparisons between the two men or their actions? I'll give you a clue: when any two men lead their country into war, they MUST use many of the same ploys and techniques. This is true regardless of whether they are leaders of a democracy or a fascist, totalitarian, or Nazi regime. When you ask people to send themselves or their family members to die for a cause, that's a big thing. You have to appeal to their fear, anger, loyalties and you have to fan their hatreds. Demonizing the enemy is a good tool. "Rape rooms? They hate freedom? They would destroy America? They are terrorists who would provide wmds to other terrorists and create a mushroom cloud over New York? They are EVIL?" It helps to tout a sense of moral or national superiority over the rest of the world. "We are the world's greatest hope for freedom and human rights. It's our job to 'save the world' and preserve our values. The rest of the world resents us because of our success and our greatness." It is essential to create a sense of insecurity that merits a violent reprisal on our part. "We are in a war. There are those who would kill us and attack us without mercy. To stand and wait is to invite a huge catastrophe with potentially hundreds of thousands or millions of our men women and children dead." In the end, the threat from "evil forces" against our "good and righteous" nation that "could result in millions of casualties," justifies the sacrifice of our young men and women, justifies the killing of others, even some that are innocent women and children, and sanctifies our use of force to assure that NO NATION IS EVER POWERFUL ENOUGH TO CHALLENGE AMERICAN MILITARY SUPERIORITY. That's the bait, the question is whether there's a hook in that bait. Some of us are convinced that although the rhetoric used by the Bush people is based on some real threats and some legitimate concerns, the actual motives behind the actions we've taken in Iraq are much baser and are hidden from us. Some of us are convinced that an intelligent analysis of these concerns and the alternatives available to us to address them illustrates that the course we are taking will take us two steps back for every step forward. And some of us are alarmed by the similarities in the rhetoric used and its effect on our people and the rhetoric used in Nazi Germany and its effect on the German population. The most alarming aspect to me is the wave of blind nationalism that has swept this country, the deliberate efforts on the part of our executive branch under Bush to stifle debate and label any who question as "unAmerican," and the attack on civil liberties in the form of laws that increase the police powers of the executive branch and the veil of secrecy that they can hide behind. The not so thinly veiled attempts to intimidate and limit the access of the press is also alarming, especially when the press seems to be more concerned with "ratings" and the threat of "sponser boycotts" than printing the facts when the facts are not currently popular. If you can't see parallels between Germany in the 30s and the U.S. in the Bush years, then you have shut your eyes, your ears and your brain. Only a very FOOLISH person would not see some similarities and be alarmed.