2008 Woodie Awards
Iraq is not comparable with Hitler's Germany
Josh Robbins--Daily Trojan (U. Southern California)
Issue date: 4/16/03 Section: Opinion
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(U-WIRE) LOS ANGELES - Of the many creative contentions in the ever-changing argument in support of the current illegal invasion of Iraq, perhaps the most worrisome is the analogy that equates Saddam Hussein's regime with early Nazi Germany.
This analogy is so bogus that it should not require debunking. Unfortunately, it has been forced down the throats of Americans with such persistence that, like the blatant falsehood of Hussein's involvement in Sept. 11, people are actually believing it. One of the main culprits is, not surprisingly, the shameless Bill O'Reilly of Fox News, who recently juxtaposed images of Hussein and Adolf Hitler in an attempt to marry the two in historical infamy.
The suggestion is that by stepping in early in this conflict, we are preventing Hussein's regime from gaining the kind of power and momentum that made the Nazis so difficult to defeat once the Allies got around to trying.
For the record, when this war started, Iraq was a mostly destroyed Third World country ruled by a CIA operative-turned-second-rate dictator. It had no plans to conquer its neighbors, and in fact, did not even control vast sections of its own country. Hardly the military powerhouse of a 1937 Germany poised to take a stab at global domination. But this is beside the point. When Hussein falls, the analogy will be shifted to Iran, Syria, North Korea or [God help us] all three at once. Is there really a lesson to be learned from World War II that relates directly to this conflict, and if so, what?
By putting forth this analogy, right-wing pundits are suggesting that we should have bombed and invaded Germany and killed Hitler before the Nazis even had a chance to plan their European conquests. Let's think about this for a moment. How would the world have reacted to this action, however justified in hindsight, without the knowledge of what Hitler's plans were? Would it have prevented a world war? Of course we can't know, but I would suggest that such action, though it would have certainly changed and perhaps postponed World War II, would also have ensured its eventual realization and maybe with a different final outcome.
This analogy is so bogus that it should not require debunking. Unfortunately, it has been forced down the throats of Americans with such persistence that, like the blatant falsehood of Hussein's involvement in Sept. 11, people are actually believing it. One of the main culprits is, not surprisingly, the shameless Bill O'Reilly of Fox News, who recently juxtaposed images of Hussein and Adolf Hitler in an attempt to marry the two in historical infamy.
The suggestion is that by stepping in early in this conflict, we are preventing Hussein's regime from gaining the kind of power and momentum that made the Nazis so difficult to defeat once the Allies got around to trying.
For the record, when this war started, Iraq was a mostly destroyed Third World country ruled by a CIA operative-turned-second-rate dictator. It had no plans to conquer its neighbors, and in fact, did not even control vast sections of its own country. Hardly the military powerhouse of a 1937 Germany poised to take a stab at global domination. But this is beside the point. When Hussein falls, the analogy will be shifted to Iran, Syria, North Korea or [God help us] all three at once. Is there really a lesson to be learned from World War II that relates directly to this conflict, and if so, what?
By putting forth this analogy, right-wing pundits are suggesting that we should have bombed and invaded Germany and killed Hitler before the Nazis even had a chance to plan their European conquests. Let's think about this for a moment. How would the world have reacted to this action, however justified in hindsight, without the knowledge of what Hitler's plans were? Would it have prevented a world war? Of course we can't know, but I would suggest that such action, though it would have certainly changed and perhaps postponed World War II, would also have ensured its eventual realization and maybe with a different final outcome.