original (written 11 months ago)

Churchill or Hitler? The quotes speak for themselves



by Sabina C. Becker



In a time when your nation is under attack, it's all too tempting to reach for analogies from wars past. The media in America have been doing just that ever since September 11, 2001--yes, that other day that will live in infamy. It's amazing how little time they lost in comparing it to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, while ignoring a far more apposite comparison from the other stage of the theatre of war--namely, the burning of the German Reichstag. They were doing it within hours of the hijacked jets hitting their targets in New York and Washington. But that's not the only time they missed the mark in making their comparisons. To hear the major (conservative, that is) media tell it lately, you'd think that George W. Bush was another Winston Churchill, while Howard Dean is the next Hitler.

Now, try to cointain your laughter. We all know that Churchill was an eloquent orator who always managed to say the right thing at the right moment, while Bush is a verbal stumblebum who can't even say peace or freedom without mangling them into something laughable, like peeance freeance. About the only time Bush doesn't trip over his tongue is when he's threatening to call down God's fire and brimstone on his enemies. At times like that, he reminds me oddly of a certain maniacal Austrian dope fiend with a little pushbroom on his upper lip, raving about how Germany will strike back at her enemies...

Howard Dean, on the other hand, doesn't sound a bit like Hitler. Nor does he sound like a man unhinged. You don't get through even one year of medical school, let alone five gubernatorial terms as Dr. Dean has done, if you are really unhinged. When giving his recent concession speech at the Iowa Democratic Caucus, a fiery little pep talk to his troops after a lost football game that the media mistook for a Nuremberg rally, Dean sounded quite sane and upbeat, like an underdog who's not about to give up the fight because he knows there are bigger ones ahead. Some of my friends say he reminds them of Teddy Roosevelt, but I have a better comparison. Let's let the quotes tell the story:



We will not give up! We will not give up in New Hampshire! We will not give up in South Carolina! We will not give up in Arizona or New Mexico, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan! We will not quit now or ever! We'll earn our country back for ordinary Americans!

--Howard Dean, Iowa Democratic Caucus, January 19, 2004



Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never--in nothing, great or small, large or petty--never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

--Winston Churchill, October 29, 1941, at Harrow School



Still not convinced? Look again:



You know something? You know something? Not only are we going to New Hampshire...We're going to South Carolina and Oklahoma and Arizona and North Dakota and New Mexico. We're going to California and Texas and New York, and we're going to South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan. And then we're going to Washington, D.C. to take back the White House.

--Howard Dean, Iowa Democratic Caucus, January 19, 2004

We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender...

--Winston Churchill, June 4, 1940, to the House of Commons



Now I ask you...does that sound unhinged? If it is, then Churchill was surely a raving lunatic, for Howard Dean captures perhaps not his accent, but certainly his spirit, and also his cadence--so faithfully, in fact, that he's almost word-for-word.

Now, let's flip back to Dubya. I said he sounded like Hitler on a crystal-meth rampage. I stand by my words, and here are theirs to back me up:



I know that some people question if America is really in a war at all. They view terrorism more as a crime -- a problem to be solved mainly with law enforcement and indictments. After the World Trade Center was first attacked in 1993, some of the guilty were indicted, tried, convicted and sent to prison. But the matter was not settled. The terrorists were still training and plotting in other nations, and drawing up more ambitious plans. After the chaos and carnage of Sept. 11, it is not enough to serve our enemies with legal papers. The terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States -- and war is what they got....

Some critics have said our duties in Iraq must be internationalized. This particular criticism is hard to explain to our partners in Britain, Australia, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, Italy, Spain, Poland, Denmark, Hungary, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Romania, the Netherlands, Norway, El Salvador and the 17 other countries that have committed troops to Iraq. As we debate at home, we must never ignore the vital contributions of our international partners or dismiss their sacrifices. From the beginning, America has sought international support for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and we have gained much support. There is a difference, however, between leading a coalition of many nations and submitting to the objections of a few. America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our people.

--George W. Bush, State of the Union address, 2004



Only those who were blind concerning National Socialism could overlook the tremendous work of education that the good philosophy of life has accomplished. There has been created today a community of spirit throughout our people of power and strength such as Germany never before has known. This was the first precondition for the undertaking, and for the success of this task.

Second was national rearmament, which I sponsored fanatically for six years. I am of the opinion that it is cheaper to prepare one's self before events than to lie prostrate unprepared for events and then pay the foreign country.

The third thing was rendering secure the Reich, and here you yourselves are witnesses to the tremendous work that is being accomplished in your very neighborhood. I need tell you no details about it. I will give expression, however, to but one conviction: NO POWER IN THE WORLD WILL BE ABLE TO PUSH THROUGH THIS WALL.

Fourth, we have gained foreign friends. That axis that people in other countries so often think they can ridicule has, during the last two and a half years, not only proved durable but has proved that even in the worst hours it continues to function.

--Adolf Hitler, Saarbrücken, October 9, 1938



And if that's not enough to convince you, here's a little bit more:



Inside the United States, where the war began, we must continue to give homeland security and law enforcement personnel every tool they need to defend us. And one of those essential tools is the PATRIOT Act....Key provisions of the PATRIOT Act are set to expire next year. The terrorist threat will not expire on that schedule. Our law enforcement needs this vital legislation to protect our citizens -- you need to renew the PATRIOT Act. America is on the offensive against the terrorists who started this war.

--George W. Bush, State of the Union address, 2004



We know further that now, as before, there is lurking threateningly that Jewish-international world enemy who has found a living expression in bolshevism. We also know the power of the international press that lives solely on lies and calumniation. In view of this peculiarity of the world about us and of these forces we must be careful about the future. We must at all times have a will for peace but be ready for defense.

--Adolf Hitler, Saarbrücken, October 9, 1938



How could the media miss all that? They must be comatose. Either that, or they live in the United States of Amnesia, content to forget history and unwilling to learn from it. They must be terrified of Dr. Howard Dean, who threatens to inject a megadose of reality into their sleepy little world with an 18-gauge needle. Or else they're so spooked by those two entrants in the MoveOn.org commercial contest, the ones that made the Bush/Hitler comparison more explicit, that they are in a panic of denial. Whatever the case may be, this much is clear to me: America now has her Hitler, and he's in the White House. She needs a real Churchill to depose him if she is ever to regain the freedoms and peace she has lost.



©Sabina C. Becker, 2004

bina is good, ain't she?

bush does sound just like hitler, and i think it is no accident. it is not because bush THINKS like hitler (though he has the same values, i doubt he has the cerebral capacity), it is because his propogandist (rove) ADMIRES hitler.

remember:

Shucks, folks...

Well, now it looks like Dr. Dean is about to get his second go at it. I hope the DNC gets him as its head. They need him badly.

'Bina.