Bush as Hitler: USA is a Rogue State
'While selling his attack on Iraq, Bush often draws an analogy with Hitler's Germany. He likens the threat posed to the world by Saddam today to the threat posed by Hitler in the mid 30s. The point that he tries to make is that it would cost the world much more to tackle Saddam later if he is not tackled now, just as it would have been less wasteful to stop Hitler when he just began his aggressions over Eastern Europe. While the analogy between Saddam and Hitler may be laughable, it is instructive, though frightening, to draw an analogy between Bush and Hitler and the threats posed by them to other nations and to world peace.

'There is no comparison between the absolute and relative, offensive and destructive military power in Hitler's arsenal and that available to Bush today. The US has more than 50% of the world's military hardware including more than 10,000 nuclear weapons and enormous quantities of chemical and biological weapons. It can destroy the planet many times over and render it unfit for any form of life. It spends more on offensive military hardware than all the rest of the world put together. Compared to the military arsenal of the US today, Germany's under Hitler was nothing. The lack of respect of the US for international law is evident not only in the number of occasions that it has engaged in unilateral overt military aggression over countries during the last 50 years, (China, Korea, Guatemala, Indonesia, Cuba, Congo, Peru, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Grenada, Libya, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Iraq, Bosnia, Sudan, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan) but also from the number of occasions that it has vetoed unanimous Security Council resolutions which were passed to make Israel comply with international law.'

'But, it may be objected, that it would be unfair to compare Bush with Hitler, since Bush leads a democratic country, while Hitler had established a dictatorship. But even Hitler had come to power through a democratic election. It was only thereafter, that he used the Reichstag fire and the demonising of the Jews to generate mass hysteria and acquire absolute power. Hasn't Bush also used the events of September 11 to carefully orchestrate his "war on terror" to generate the same kind of hysteria. He has used that hysteria to get the Congress to abdicate and cede many of its powers to him, particularly the all-important power of permitting attack on other countries under the cover of this war on terror. He has even got several draconian laws passed, including the infamous Patriot Act, which is being used to erode civil liberties and gradually take the US on the path of a Police State. Several thousand persons have been imprisoned by the government since September 11 without charges and without trial. Several thousand others are being held in inhuman conditions in Guantanamo Bay without trial. Even though the US government holds them, the US courts have held that they have no jurisdiction to entertain petitions on behalf of such prisoners.'

Less than half the American voters voted in the last Presidential election and Bush received a fraction under half that total, or a statistical tie as Chomsky has said. This means he gained the Presidency with about 25% of eligible voters - less than Hitler's Nazi party received. More significantly, the Bush gang stole the election from Al Gore, in all likelihood the rightful winner. The Bush Gang suffers from hubris and this may be their downfall as the American elite imposes discipline on their unsustainable foreign policy and extremely poor diplomacy. Also of course, the Gang is not explicitly devoted to smashing democracy altogether and establishing dictatorship as Hitler was. Nevertheless, the next Presidential election is a critical moment. It remains to be seen how close Bush will be to re-election and what corrupt and undemocratic techniques the Gang is prepared to utilise in order to remain in power. The trend of events is clear but history does not repeat in the same way each time. More likely is a new and distinctive form of 'American Fascism', which continues to incorporate American institutions such as the Democrats, Mass Media, Giant Corporations and Religious Fundamentalism, in a slow and steady economic, social and military decline, punctuated by paroxysms of extreme violence directed against hapless victims in the Third World - a decline which can only be countered by a grass roots awakening.

Bush as Hitler: USA is a Rogue State
'While selling his attack on Iraq, Bush often draws an analogy with Hitler's Germany. He likens the threat posed to the world by Saddam today to the threat posed by Hitler in the mid 30s. The point that he tries to make is that it would cost the world much more to tackle Saddam later if he is not tackled now, just as it would have been less wasteful to stop Hitler when he just began his aggressions over Eastern Europe. While the analogy between Saddam and Hitler may be laughable, it is instructive, though frightening, to draw an analogy between Bush and Hitler and the threats posed by them to other nations and to world peace.

'There is no comparison between the absolute and relative, offensive and destructive military power in Hitler's arsenal and that available to Bush today. The US has more than 50% of the world's military hardware including more than 10,000 nuclear weapons and enormous quantities of chemical and biological weapons. It can destroy the planet many times over and render it unfit for any form of life. It spends more on offensive military hardware than all the rest of the world put together. Compared to the military arsenal of the US today, Germany's under Hitler was nothing. The lack of respect of the US for international law is evident not only in the number of occasions that it has engaged in unilateral overt military aggression over countries during the last 50 years, (China, Korea, Guatemala, Indonesia, Cuba, Congo, Peru, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Grenada, Libya, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Iraq, Bosnia, Sudan, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan) but also from the number of occasions that it has vetoed unanimous Security Council resolutions which were passed to make Israel comply with international law.'

'But, it may be objected, that it would be unfair to compare Bush with Hitler, since Bush leads a democratic country, while Hitler had established a dictatorship. But even Hitler had come to power through a democratic election. It was only thereafter, that he used the Reichstag fire and the demonising of the Jews to generate mass hysteria and acquire absolute power. Hasn't Bush also used the events of September 11 to carefully orchestrate his "war on terror" to generate the same kind of hysteria. He has used that hysteria to get the Congress to abdicate and cede many of its powers to him, particularly the all-important power of permitting attack on other countries under the cover of this war on terror. He has even got several draconian laws passed, including the infamous Patriot Act, which is being used to erode civil liberties and gradually take the US on the path of a Police State. Several thousand persons have been imprisoned by the government since September 11 without charges and without trial. Several thousand others are being held in inhuman conditions in Guantanamo Bay without trial. Even though the US government holds them, the US courts have held that they have no jurisdiction to entertain petitions on behalf of such prisoners.'

Less than half the American voters voted in the last Presidential election and Bush received a fraction under half that total, or a statistical tie as Chomsky has said. This means he gained the Presidency with about 25% of eligible voters - less than Hitler's Nazi party received. More significantly, the Bush gang stole the election from Al Gore, in all likelihood the rightful winner. The Bush Gang suffers from hubris and this may be their downfall as the American elite imposes discipline on their unsustainable foreign policy and extremely poor diplomacy. Also of course, the Gang is not explicitly devoted to smashing democracy altogether and establishing dictatorship as Hitler was. Nevertheless, the next Presidential election is a critical moment. It remains to be seen how close Bush will be to re-election and what corrupt and undemocratic techniques the Gang is prepared to utilise in order to remain in power. The trend of events is clear but history does not repeat in the same way each time. More likely is a new and distinctive form of 'American Fascism', which continues to incorporate American institutions such as the Democrats, Mass Media, Giant Corporations and Religious Fundamentalism, in a slow and steady economic, social and military decline, punctuated by paroxysms of extreme violence directed against hapless victims in the Third World - a decline which can only be countered by a grass roots awakening.