Scholars Discuss Hitler Bush Comparison

[Andreus]

Since it has been suggested that I am somehow unique in my assessment that there are startling similarities in the way the two men came to power, both in their pre war years,... Bush pre Iraq and Hitler pre Poland I have decided to post a thread to open some eyes to what the world has been saying and what the republicans dont want you to hear....


Ted Rall (cartoonist and writer)


In January, 2004, asking "Is Bush a Nazi?" seems the conclude that Bush is worse because at least Hitler was elected:

Lately we're being told that it's either (a) inappropriate or (b) untrue to refer to Bush's illegitimate junta as Nazi, neo-Nazi or neofascist. Because, you know, you're not necessarily a Nazi just because you seize power like one, take advantage of a national Reichstag Fire-like tragedy like one, build concentration and death camps like one, start unprovoked wars like one, Red-bait your liberal opponents like one or create a national security apparatus that behaves like something a Nazi would create and even has a Nazi-sounding name. All of those people who see a little Adolf in the not-so-bright eyes of America's homeland-grown despot are just imagining things.​

Me, I'm catching it for this week's cartoon for daring to suggest that, well--you know.​

Of course, there are differences. Hitler, for example, was legally elected. And he had a plan--not one that I like, but a plan--for the period after the war.​

I'll be happy to stop comparing Bush to Hitler when he stops acting like him.​

​

Dave Lindorff, politcal author

In three 'Counterpunch' articles, Dave Lindorff expands on the comparisons he sees between Bush and Hitler.


In <"Bush and Hitler - The Stategy of Fear" on February 1, 2003:

It's going a bit far to compare the Bush of 2003 to the Hitler of 1933. Bush simply is not the orator that Hitler was. But comparisons of the Bush Administration's fear mongering tactics to those practiced so successfully and with such terrible results by HItler and Goebbels on the German people and their Weimar Republic are not at all out of line. ​

In "Bush and Hitler...Compare and Contrast" on July 18, 2003, in response to criticism of his February article:


​

So far, for example, while he has rounded up some Arab and Muslim men purely because of their ethnicity or religion, Bush has not started gassing them--at least not yet. What I did say, however [is] that some of the tactics of the Bush administration resemble those of Hitler and his Brownshirts. I would go further and add that Bush's attorney general, John Ashcroft, a man who has pointedly praised the old Confederacy, would probably feel quite comfortable in brown with a hakenkreuz tacked to his sleeve.​

[... warmongering ... agressive nationalism ... Guantanemo Bay as a concentration camp ...]​

So let's make ourselves clear here. George Bush is not Hitler. Yet. America is not a fascist state. Yet. ​

In "RNC Plays the Hitler Card - MoveOn Shouldn't Apologize for Those Ads" on January 6, 2004, talking about the MoveOn ads:


​

... The truth is that the two ads are pretty darned good. [...] The Bush administration deliberately stoked public fears after 9/11--just as the Nazi's used the Reichstag Fire--to win support for an illegal, unprovoked invasion of Iraq, an act of aggression which, at the Nuremberg Trials, was specifically determined to be a war crime. The ad might have added that the "shock and awe" terror campaign that was the centerpiece of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, was also by definition a war crime, since its target was the Iraqi public. [...] President Bush did in fact publicly claim divine instruction to have been behind his decisions to invade Afghanistan and later Iraq--a rather scary example, if he is being sincere, of the very kind of megalomania that characterized Hitler. [...] Were these two ads unfair to either Bush or to the memory of the Holocaust? Hardly. [...] Are they saying that Bush is Hitler? Only to the most simplistic or willfully unimaginative of viewers--that is to say the RNC poobahs. What they are saying is that the same technique used by Hitler and his National Socialist brownshirts to whip up nationalist fervor in Germany in the early and mid 1930s is being employed today by the Bush Administration and the Republican Party, and to the same end--to get the American public to acquiesce in surrendering its democratic rights, to accept one-party rule, and to agree to a national policy of permanent war in the name of American global hegemony. ... ​

​

Paul Street



Paul Street, ZNet contributor and Vice President for Research and Planning at the Chicago Urban League, wrote on April 14, 2003 that there is, apparently, only one particularly notable difference between Bush and Hitler - Hitler wouldn't have allowed any looting of museums in Baghdad:

The White House is deeply offended (officially at least) by those who note the chilling parallel between Nazi foreign policy and the Bush-Wolfowitz doctrine of "preemptive" (really preventive) war currently being enacted in Iraq. Remembering that all versions of racist imperialism are not the same, then, let us note one key difference between the way the Bush gang is proceeding and how Adolf Hitler's Third Reich would have conquered Baghdad. The Nazis, we can be sure, would have made special provision to safeguard, and then of course appropriate, the monumental treasures of Mesopotamia and ancient Sumerian civilization. ...​

​

Iver Bogen


Iver Bogen (emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota, Duluth), writes about the "The Nazification Of The Republican Administration":

Just as Hitler was installed (but not elected by the German people) as the Feuhrer by the Nazi party, so George W. Bush was installed as President of the United States by a conservative Supreme Court. In both cases, governments used "national security" as an excuse to launch an assault on democratic freedoms. While "lebensraum" was a rallying cry for Hitler, Bush's "evil axis," referring to North Korea, Iran and Iraq, was supposed to generate patriotic "no-think" here in the USA. Just as Hitler detached himself from the League of Nations, George W. has been assuming a more insular position internationally. ... Just as the burning of the Reichstag provided the Nazi party with the opportunity for shredding the Weimar Constitution, so did the attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11/01 provide the Republican administration (Cheney/Ashcroft/Rumsfeld) with the rationale for abolishing the freedoms granted to all citizens in the American Constitution. ...​

​

David R. Hoffman (Legal Editor of PRAVDA)


In "Bush vs Hitler", the Legal Editor of Russia's classiest newspaper doesn't hold back. You half expect the picture editor to chuck in a photo of Bush with a Hitler mustache, and use a swastika as the 's' in his name. Oh, hang on, they do have a picture of Bush with a Hitler mustache and using a swastika as the 's' in his name:

In fact, several disturbing analogies exist between George W. Bush and history's most infamous fascist, Adolph Hitler: Both men assumed power in defiance of the will of the majority; both men used "great lies" to pursue their warmongering agendas; both men preyed upon humanity's basest instincts to disseminate those "great lies"; both men were appeased by the British government, Hitler through Neville Chamberlain and Bush through Tony Blair; both men were willing to use national tragedies to justify the destruction of civil liberties, Hitler through the burning of the Reichstag and Bush through the September 11th terrorist attacks; both men were/are suspected of either participating in, or ignoring warnings about the imminence of, these tragedies in order to enhance their political stature and power; both men [exploit(ed)] a culture of death for political self-aggrandizement, Hitler through his well-publicized genocide campaigns, and Bush who, while governor of Texas, routinely denied DNA tests to death row inmates, even though such tests could prevent wrongful executions; both men were willing to appeal to racism, Hitler through his quest for a "master race," and Bush through his condemnation of affirmative action policies, which primarily benefit racial minorities. [...] both men reveled in war and exploited the military to satiate their personal ambitions and vendettas; both men used war to enrich their political cronies; both men demonstrated contempt for international law and the concerns of the world community; and both men believed they were/are on some holy crusade inspired by a "divine province" that placed them into power. [...]​

​

Wayne Madsen, Washington DC-based investigative journalist and columnist

In a January 2003 article for 'Counterpunch' titled "Bush and Hitler - Compare and Contrast":

Adolf Hitler would be proud that an American President is emulating him in so many ways. Hitler, it will be remembered, routinely ignored his military, other world leaders, and the clergy ...

Passing swiftly on to:

War making and saber rattling is not the only similarity of Bush to Hitler. The German leader, along with Joseph Goebbels, was also a master of propaganda. ...

Bush uses force and the media. So did Hitler. Ergo, Bush is like Hitler.



Then in February 2003, describing "Bush's War on the Soul of America":

The U.S. military [are being deployed overseas, which] permits the Bush regime to seize more and more constitutional rights of the American people without the possibility of substantial resistance. The only people who are currently defenseless in the world today are the American people--they are vulnerable to the machinations of their own illegal regime. [...] Like Roman Caesars Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius, and Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolf Hitler, and Benito Mussolini before him, Bush's fanaticism threatens to plunge the world into endless war and bring to an ignoble close America's 227-year democratic run. ...​

Moving on to:​

​

Anyone who closely examines Patriot II will realize that the document represents the same sort of power grab by Hitler after the Reichstag Fire of 1933. Using the pretext that the Reichstag was burned down by Communists (when, in fact, it was engineered by Nazis), Hitler pushed through the "Decree by the Reich President for the Defense of People and State." The Reichstag Fire Decree, intended only as a "temporary" measure, permitted Hitler and his regime to jail political opponents at will, bypass the judicial system, and eventually force millions of people into concentration camps.​

Like the Reichstag Fire Decree, there is nothing really temporary with either Patriot I or II. ...​

​

Bob Fitrakis

At Common Dreams and Op-Ed News, Bob Fitrakis (a political science professor and attorney, no less) writes "On Bush and Hitler's Rhetoric"...

... When was the last time a Western nation had a leader so obsessed with God and claiming God was on our side? If you answered Adolph Hitler and Nazi Germany, you're correct ... Both Bush and Hitler believe that they were chosen by God to lead their nations... Like Bush-ites, Hitler was fond of invoking the Ten Commandments as the foundation of Nazi Germany... But if you ever wondered where Bush got his idea for so-called "faith-based initiatives" you need only consult Hitler's January 30, 1939 speech to the Reichstag ...​

​

John Pilger


In the Mirror in September 2002:

"Pre-emptive attack" means attacking someone before they attack you. When the Bush gang use it, they like to compare themselves with Churchillian types who opposed Europe's appeasers of German ambitions in the 1930s. This is both false and dishonest; for it is they who bear a likeness to the imperial planners of the Third Reich. ​

In case you missed that here he is again, in the Mirror, in January 2003:


​

[Tony Blair] is the embodiment of the most dangerous appeasement humanity has known since the 1930s. The current American elite is the Third Reich of our times, although this distinction ought not to let us forget that they have merely accelerated more than half a century of unrelenting American state terrorism...​

​

Protestors in Greece, 2003


In an April 2003 ZMag report, some demonstrations in Greece are described:

"We Greeks have been through so much – dictatorships, Balkan wars, not to mention the Roman and Ottoman occupations" says a placard-carrying man who has been singing along to a traditional Greek ballad played by a nearby accordionist. "We are a small country but we have the experience to know that war is not the answer". His placard features a moustachioed Bush with the inscription "Adolf Bushler". ... "Can you really compare Bush with Hitler?" asks Vincent Moloi, my fellow filmmaker from Johannesburg. We are in Greece to shoot a documentary. "Sure, both were obsessed with their own power, and prepared to kill other nations to expand it," comes the reply.​

​

 

[chance1]

seems to me like we have 1 of 2 things

1 - these guys share your racist views - and attempting to minimize Hitler and his destruction be equating it with Bush - is insensitive to Jews and to people all over

2 - your hatred and theirs of GWB is so extreme that you'll strive for any analogy - no matter how sick and disturbed

You're pulling a Kerry Andreus - a Kerry is what it is - and we know what happened there - too much ego to admit it - or your belief in it - which is worse?

you should really move on

Bush = Hitler is not a good play and does not put u in a good light

 

[Andreus]

ok honey

you think that

my personal history speaks for itself. I have no fear of anyone believing that for one millisecond about me. too many years of fighting for equality and rights for eeveryone.

you are doing exactly as i expected, and the above gentlemen suggested....

running from the reality and calling me a racist to stir up an emotional response

you cant answer the meat of the issues because there is no answer

 

[chance1]

ok honey

you think that

my personal history speaks for itself. I have no fear of anyone believing that for one millisecond about me. too many years of fighting for equality and rights for eeveryone.

you are doing exactly as i expected, and the above gentlemen suggested....

running from the reality and calling me a racist to stir up an emotional response

you cant answer the meat of the issues because there is no answer

Your personal history I have no knowledge of. As for Bush = Hitler distubing a lot of JUBBERs, perhaps not. That says more about JUB than you.

Fighting for rights and equality? That's rich. Equality for those who agree with you? disdain for those who don't?

The meat of the issues is pretty basic

Partisanship is bogus - what voters want is progress not partisanship

Bush = Hitler is a fringe loon notion that does not stand the reasonability test

 

[Andreus]

It might be a more interesting exercise to compare Bush and Robespierre, in both language and in legislation.

Interesting

well i can see the similarities to bush in a few ways

the committee on public safety is an interesting comparison to the department of homeland security

I can perhaps see the similarities in the methods of violence...

"If virtue be the spring of a popular government in times of peace, the spring of that government during a revolution is virtue combined with terror: virtue, without which terror is destructive; terror, without which virtue is impotent. Terror is only justice prompt, severe and inflexible; it is then an emanation of virtue; it is less a distinct principle than a natural consequence of the general principle of democracy, applied to the most pressing wants of the country.

i will have to do some digging on this one...lol

 

[Andreus]

The big difference between Bush and Hitler is that Hitler was a genius.

Bush is, of course, mildly mentally retarded.

Let us thank God for Bush's stupidity. Were he as smart as Hitler, the Republic would already be history.

it's seems that all the sources above seem to concur with you.

he had the plan, but not the smarts to fully realize the agenda

 

[Sausy]

Robespieere was an extremiist left wing political revolutionary who began a REign of Terror against the monarchists and the democratic elements of the revolutionaries who overthrew Louis XVI.Bush is a poor president who has few of the great qualities of leadership,overall a weak president who could not be open,inquisitive,or trustful enough to be a worthy leader.They both were ideologically sure of themselves and their cause,but the real tyranny and oppression of Robespierre isn't equated by Bush.I don't defend Bush,but the comparisons are quite over the top.

 

[Andreus]

Take a look at the "Law of 22 Prairial", which eliminated the right to offer a defense at trial (Article 16), among other things, in light of certain similar legislation which recently came out of Congress at the Administration's behest.

wow... that really is spooky

source ... wikipedia

The Law of 22 Prairial, also known as the loi de la Grande Terreur, the law of the Reign of Terror, was enacted on June 10, 1794 (22 Prairial of the Year II under the French Revolutionary Calendar). It was proposed by Georges Auguste Couthon and lent support by Robespierre. It was one of the ordinances passed during this stage of the French Revolution, by means of which the Committee of Public Safety simplified the judicial process to one of prosecution and indictment. It extended the reach of the Revolutionary Tribunal, and limited the ability of the accused to defend themselves, broadening the scope of those who might be brought within the purview of revolutionary justice. The penalty for all offences under the jurisdiction of the Revolutionary Tribunal was death.
It provided for a climate of moral suspicion with the clause which stipulated that:
Every citizen is empowered to seize conspirators and counterrevolutionaries, and to bring them before the magistrates. He is required to denounce them as soon as he knows of them.

remarkably similar to the patriot act and the bush executive mandates that declare the POW's of the wars are subject to military tribunal, no legal rights, and subject to legal torture and execution.

that is actually startlingly similar

i do see sausage eaters points on the differences though

 

[Sausy]

Though I see some of the areas where there are similarities...I still think the comparison is a reach,but there are similarities with the certitude of their cause,and the privacy and security policies having some dead on similarities.

 

[Andreus]

i cant quite justify the fact that bush is pro establishment and Robespierre is anti establishment

their methods seem similar to consolidate power but that seems the extent of it.

 

[star-warrior]

No, I don't see the similarities as clearly. For one, Hitler used to dream about things, and everyone around him tried to put forward what he wanted, in whatever means they could.

GWB seems to have it differently, he's too easily lead by his advisors, and the real power behind the throne is the regent Cheney. IMO....

 

[CO Bob]

you cant answer the meat of the issues because there is no answer

There is no answer because there is no meat. This thread is totally ubsurd, and Andreus is as obsessed as the most crazy-eyed conspiracy therorist ever!

In two years, when we have a new President, all of this will be just a bunch of mental masturbation, and the loonies will have to look elsewhere for their conspiracy's.

 

[Andreus]

freedom fries anyone?

no thanks

haven't you heard?

Pelosi potatoes are on the menu now

still no response to the real analogies represented here

just republican falderall, bluster, faux outrage and personal attacks

its easy to see why the democrats are going to be around for a while as the majority on the hill.

 

[Lostlover]

I don't like Bush one bit, but to compare him to Hitler is just crazy.

These people that are trying to make connections between the two are blinded by hate and need to grow up.

 

[Andreus]

nno one can deny that their rise to power is similar, OR that they have both sought to hush their critics from within in similar ways.

Bush is not the reincarnation of Hitler, no

He is however unaware, as apparently other republicans are, that if you open the pandoras box of limiting the peoples rights, you alter the nature of the nation so inherently that anything is possible under the wrong circumstances.

It has become apparent that this last election is quickly going to put and end to some of the fears, and I am sure that something will be done in the next Few years to reassert the individual freedoms we lost in the last five.

the scare is past, but we cannot forget what the world has experienced and what simply does not work.

Bush has personally professed that he would prefer a dictatorship...

that is just the fact.

He said it twice.

Its good to see that the american people disagreed with him on November 7th

 

[smirnoff-ice]

The big difference between Bush and Hitler is that Hitler was a genius.

i strongly disagree with that. true, bush is not the most intelligent man in the world, but hitler a genious? definitely not.

bush is just "stupid" (on a certain way, maybe it's better to call him naive), but hitler was totally sick.

 

[chance1]

I don't like Bush one bit, but to compare him to Hitler is just crazy.

These people that are trying to make connections between the two are blinded by hate and need to grow up.

Yup - hatred blinds these fanatics

They have no interest in civility or reasonability or in rational discourse. Any good thoughts they may have get erased in an instant

Bush = Hitler

Credibility is a terrible thing to waste

 

[Andreus]

Credibility is a terrible thing to waste

pot?

meet kettle

 

[chance1]

pot?

meet kettle

Do the Kerry dance for as long as you like

You only serve to paint yourself in a manner which you detest

Bush = Hitler is so wrong for so many reasons

The biggest one is that it minimizes the extermination of 6 million Jews - period.

Bush "tax breaks for the rich" = murder

Bush believing bad intel (like everyone else) = starvation of a people

Keep going on this on Andreus - I love that you're sticking to your guns cause more people will see

 

[Andreus]

it does not even address the Jewish holocaust. it is not even part of the comparison. You are trying to minimize the real similarities by saying .... at least Dubya didnt kill 6 million jews...

WTF???

that is just posturing

how is saying that bush uses strong arm methods of legislation and attempts to deprive american citizens their civil rights in methods similar to hitler any commentary on the horror of the holocaust?

really

you are stretching logic to the extreme and if you read through the posts and the responses, you will see that you are actually the minority in your beliefs.

it is painfully obvious you have no real answer to the isues raised here and you are trying to use false accusations to shout down a view that you don't like.

get over it.