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Tuesday, October 30, 2007 12:00 AM

Hitlers, Hitlers and more Hitlers

Norman Podhoretz sees Nazi Germany every time he wants to start a new war.

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Tuesday, October 30, 2007 08:09 AM

I hereby invoke Godwin's Law

Watched that clip courtesy of Talking Points Memo. It's one thing to read about N-Pod's ravings; quite another to watch the guy.

Is there such a thing as Neo-Con Tourette's Syndrome? In any case, I heartily endorse N-Pod appearing on as many media outlets as possible to spew his nonsense. I think the American people would realize the utter vacuity of the 'war with Iran NOW!' argument if they had to watch this insane warmonger and his verbal 'Hitler! Hitler! Hitler!' tic.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007 08:13 AM

Read history

I wish these clowns would read some history and learn how Hitler came to power. Then maybe they'd understand why some of us are worried about Bush.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007 08:17 AM

Desperation

Drips off of the neocons like sweat off an NBA player. They know the game is getting short and it will most likely be a long time till they get another dupe like Bush or hawk like Cheney.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007 08:17 AM

There's never a third way.......

either to bomb those facilities and retard [Iran's] program or even cut it off altogether or allow them to go nuclear.

I always found it amazing when the fall of the Soviet Union took place how the Russians themselves switched from becoming mortal enemies to dear friends. Oddly it was the same people in both cases.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007 08:21 AM

Podhoretz

Podhoretz is poisonous and he is looking to destroy more than he can ever create. He is Giuliani's best advertisment to vote for Hillary Clinton -- along with Rudy's grandiosity and paranoia, of course.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007 08:22 AM

Springtime For Hitler

Somehow reading this made me immediately think of the scene in The Producers where all the actors are trying out for the role of Hitler. The real question then must be: Is Ahmadinejad a singing hitler or a dancing hitler?

Tuesday, October 30, 2007 08:23 AM

Go Glenn!

This is what I like to see! Nail the head cases who are whipping up the next war, and who have real influence with (god forbid) serious presidential contenders. Kudos.

I'm glad to see Fareed Zakariah moving away from his Bush-cheerleader roll of a few years ago, and really take Podhoretz down. What I really wish that he, or Judy Woodruff had done, however, would have been to really expose the *racial* root of Podhoretz' animus towards the Iranians. They are (so he thinks, but not really) brown-skinned barbarians from the East. That is why they can't, in his view, be deterred. The whole march to war in Iran, as it was in Iraq, is fundamentally racist paranoia.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007 08:25 AM

Actual history

Anyone who dabbles in Munich metaphors should be aware that the British were in no position to fight Hitler at the time the Agreement was signed. A year later, they had built up their forces to a level at which they were able to contemplate war when it was forced on them by treaty with France and Belgium. Even then, the "phony war" ran for another year before anything happened on the Allied side, except for Dunkirk---a defeat reasonably considered noble, in the absence of any victories whatsoever.

The Pod would have us pretend we are ready to open another front when we are not. Had the British done this in 1938, they would have faced a serious mauling and defeat, possibly leading to capitulation or a cessation of combat until they could recover their military strength, or a Battle of Britain lasting even longer than the real one did.

Note that the French actually considered themselves ready for war, and see where that led them.

So the whole metaphor is a failure---just another "stabbed-in-the-back" fantasy. Only the Czechs were betrayed (by everyone), but curiously, in the West, they have only a walk-on role in the appeasement myth itself, according to which the Munich agreement is responsible for the entire war.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007 08:26 AM

re: 'desperation'

Drips off of the neocons like sweat off an NBA player. They know the game is getting short and it will most likely be a long time till they get another dupe like Bush or hawk like Cheney.

EXACTLY. Their best hope is Giuliani; but I think they can read the polls too. They are far more likely to get Hillary in the WH in 2009, than any of the GOP candidates.

Not that Hillary Clinton will work overtime to reverse all of their misguided policies; in fact I - and many of us, I would wager - fear that she will at least in part go along with certain neo-con policies and won't pull the US out of Iraq at all.

But, clearly the next 15 months are their last chance to enact their insane policies with little to no interference. If there is a god, may s/he help us all get through to January 2009. If not, then it's up to us to do what we can to counter these warmongers and prevent them from starting another war in the Middle East.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007 08:28 AM

That's a lot of ironic capitalization

Watch out, Glenn, or you're going to end up turning our Glorious Language into German. It's a slippery slope. Next thing you know, you won't be able to avoid the temptation to ironically the Verb at the end of the Sentence put.

Of course, Hitler would be most pleased to see that.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007 08:28 AM

A Last Refuge

When all else fails--as in, gee, I really can't think of an effective way to make my argument--invoke the specter of Hitler and the Nazis. I suppose this has replaced Samuel Johnson's "patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel."

Tuesday, October 30, 2007 08:29 AM

The Bomb

Stalin got the bomb -- no war -- where is USSR today

China got the bomb -- no war -- they prop up our economy today

Pakistan got the bomb -- no war -- they are Muslims who hide Osama

North Korea may have the bomb -- no war -- they are Axis of Evil

(UK, France, Israel, India have it too)

Iran doesn't have the bomb, if they do get it then the threat of being nuked to oblivion will likely keep them in line the way it has everyone else

A

Tuesday, October 30, 2007 08:31 AM

re: actual history

good comment there.

And speaking of stones and glass houses, the amnesiac American people ought to be reminded - while neo-con mouthpieces are running around pimping for yet another war - that:

  • the seeds of the Bush family fortune were made from trading with the Nazis, both before and after the war started, and;
  • the ancestors of today's conservatives were isolationists who were adamantly against going to war with Nazi Germany, and not a few of them openly sympathized with Hitler.

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