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Recent
Stories
May
24, 2003
Gary
Leupp
The Philosopher Kings: Leo Strauss
and the Neo-Cons
Uri Avnery
The Hannibal Procedure
Diane
Christian
Who's the Real Enemy?
"Just Cause" or "Kill the Bastards"
Alexander
Cockburn
Derrida's Double Life
William
S. Lind
Is Saddam Really Out of the Game?
William
Cook
Road to Nowhere
David Krieger
Bush's War on the Poor: Economic Justice
Ilan
Pappe
Academic Freedom Under Assault in Israel
Wayne Madsen
American Idle
Noah
Leavitt
Slowing Sowing Justice in the Killing Fields
Walt Brasch
Americans are Liars
Lenni
Brenner
John Brown and Dutch Bill
Mickey
Z.
Hope, Crosby & Al Qaeda
Michael
Ortiz Hill
Grievous Harm Here and Abroad
Adam Engel
Towers of Babel
Poets'
Basement
Albert, Guthrie, Alam, Orloski
May
23, 2003
Standard
Schaefer
Lifting the Sanctions: Who Benefits?
Ron
Jacobs
Long Live People's Park!
Michael
Greger, MD
Return of Mad Cow: US Beef Supply
at Risk
Elaine
Cassel
Tigar to Ashcroft: "Secrecy is the Enemy of Democratic Govt."
Sam
Hamod
The Shi'a of Iraq
Christopher
Greeder
After the Layoffs (poem)
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Weblog 5/23
May
22, 2003
Mark
Gaffney
Christian in Name Only
Carl
Estabrook
Republic of Fear
Carl
Camacho, Jr.
Reason for Hope
Ben
Granby
What Rates a Headline from the Middle
East?
Vanessa
Jones
Terror Alerts in Australia
Mickey
Z.
Instant Understanding
Don
Monkerud
Snowballs in a Soggy Economy
Barry Lando
The Nether-Nether World of G.W. Bush
Steve
Perry
Total Information
Awareness: Secret Shadow Program?
May
21, 2003
Dave
Lindorff
Ari Fleischer Quits the Scene: The
Liar's Gone, the Enablers Remain
Chris
Floyd
How Blood Money Becomes Business Opportunity
Dr. Gerry
Lower
Graham's God and Bush's Pathology
Patrick
Cockburn
In Post War Iraq, the Signs of Breakdown
are Everywhere
Brian Cloughley
The Fatuous Braintrust: Newt, Rummy and Wolfowitz
Saul
Landau
Shopping, the End of the World and the Politics of Bush
Larry Kearney
Two Morning Poems, May 2003
Steve
Perry
Chaos in Iraq: Just What the US Wanted?
Elaine
Cassel
Ashcroft Justice Comes to Iraq
May
20, 2003
Tariq
Ali
The Empire Advances
Ahmad
Faruqui
Whither American Nationalism?
Ben Tripp
Dialysis with Osama
Linda
Heard
The Cage of Occupation
Cynthia
McKinney
Toward a Just and Peaceful World
Edward
Said
The Arab Condition
Mokhiber
and Weissman
Why Ari Should Have Resigned in Protest Long Ago
Stew
Albert
Yale Men
Steve Perry
The New Face of Al-Qaeda
May
19, 2003
Veteran
Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
A Letter to Kofi Annan on Powell's Missing
Evidence
CounterPunch
Wire
"Terror" Slut Steve Emerson
Eats Crow
John
Chuckman
Blair's Awkward Lies
Matt
Vidal
Corporate Media and the Myth of the Free Market
Michael
S. Ladah
The Fine Print to Bush's Road Map
Robert
Fisk
Bush's Eternal War Backfires
Elaine
Cassel
Clarence Thomas, Still Whining After All These Years
Jonathan
Freedland
Ann Coulter's Appalling Magic
Steve Perry
Play It Again, O-Sam-a
May
17 / 18, 2003
Uri
Avnery
The Children's Teeth
Peter
Linebaugh
An American Tribute to Christopher
Hill
Gary
Leupp
Nepal Today
Rock and
Rap Confidential
The Republican Plot Against the Dixie Chicks
Walter
Sommerfeld
Plundering Baghdad's Museums
Ron Jacobs
Condy Rice's Yipping Tirades
Thomas
P. Healy
Dubya Does Indy
Tarif Abboushi
Bush, Sharon and the Roadmap
Francis
Boyle
Debating US War Crimes in Iraq
Mark Davis
An Interview with Richard Butler
Richard
Lichtman
American Mourning
Michael
Ortiz Hill
Overcoming Terrorism
Adam
Engel
Uncle Sam is YOU!
Alan Maas
The Best News Show on TV
Poets'
Basement
Reiss, Guthrie, Albert
Elaine
Cassel
Good Enough for an Alien
Website
of the Weekend
The 37 Americans Who Run Iraq
Song of
the Weekend
Talkin' Sounds Just Like Joe McCarthy Blues
May
16, 2003
Leah
Wells
In Iraq Water and Oil Do Mix
Ben Tripp
Fear Itself
Sharon
Smith
The Resegregation of US Schools
Ramzy Baroud
Does Defeat Have to be So Humiliating?
Sam
Hamod
A Nation of Fear
Phil Reeves
Baghdad Pays the Price
Robert
McChesney
The FCC's Big Grab
Mark Engler
Those Who Don't Count
Steve
Perry
We're All
Extras in Bush's Movie
Website
of the Day
Iraq and Our
Energy Future
May
15, 2003
Ayesha
Iman and Sindi Medar-Gould
How
Not to Help Amina Lawal: The Hidden Dangers of Letter
Writing Campaigns
Julie
Hilden
Moussaoui and the Camp X-Ray Detainees:
Can He Get a Fair Trial?
Tanya
Reinhart
Bush's Roadmap: a Ticket to Failure
Laura Carlsen
Here We Go Again: NAFTA Plus or Minus?
Kenneth
Rapoza
The New Fakers: State Dept. Undercuts
New Yorker's Goldberg
Stew Albert
A Story I Will Tell
Steve
Perry
Bush's Little
Nukes
Website
of the Day
Strip-o-Rama
May
14, 2003
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Jason
Leopold
The Pentagon and Hallburton: a Secret
November Deal for Iraq's Oil
David
Lindorff
Fighting the Patriot Act: Now It's
Alaska
John
Chuckman
Giggling into Chaos
Jack
McCarthy
Twin Towers of Journalism: Racism
and Double Standards
Wayne
Madsen
Assassinating JFK Again
M.
Junaid Alam
The Longer View
Paul
de Rooij
The New Hydra's Head:
Propagandists and the Selling of the US/Iraq War
James
Reiss
What? Me Worry?
Steve Perry
More on Saudi Arabia Bombings
Website
of the Day
A Tribute to Ted Joans
May
13, 2003
Saul
Landau
Clear Channel Fogs the Airwaves
Michael
Neumann
Has Islam Failed? Not by Western
Standards
Uri
Avnery
My Meeting with Arafat
Steve Perry
The Saudi Arabia Bombing
Jacob
Levich
Democracy Comes to Iraq: Kick Their Ass and Grab Their Gas
William
Lind
The Hippo and the Mongoose: a Question of Military Theory
The
Black Commentator
Fraud at the Times: Blaming Blacks for White Folks' Mistakes
Stew Albert
Asylum
Hammond
Guthrie
An Illogical Reign
Website
of the Day
Sy Hersh: War and Intelligence
May
12, 2003
Chris
Floyd
Bush, Bin Laden, Bechtel, and Baghdad
Dave
Lindorff
America's Dirty Bombs
Sam
Hamod and Elaine Cassel
Resisting the Bush Administration's War on Liberty
Uzi
Benziman
Sharon and Sons, Inc.
Jason
Leopold
The Decline and Fall of Thomas White
Rich Procter
George Jumps the Shark
Federico
Moscogiuri
Going to Israel? Sign or Else
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/12
Book
of the Day
Fooling
Marty Peretz
Website
of the Day
T-Shirts to Protest In
Hot Stories
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
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May
27, 2003
Through a Glass Darkly
an
Interpretation of Bush's Character
By JOHN CHUCKMAN
While I find those images on the Internet of a
blunt little mustache digitally-scribbled onto President Bush's
upper lip feeble and unhelpful, still, there are parts of Bush's
character and behavior that strikingly resemble at least one
major biographer's interpretation of Hitler. Ian Kershaw's two-volume
life of Hitler puts great emphasis on his being a driving high-stakes
gambler--with innate, animal-cunning about human psychology,
few gifts of statesmanship or strategy, and little systematic
learning--attributing most of his success and all of his failure
to his compulsive quality.
When, for example, Bush waged his ferocious
post-election pursuit of legitimacy through threats and court
actions, finally securing appointment to office by America's
Supreme Court, it resembled the way Hitler, never actually elected,
worked ferociously behind the scenes and on the streets at a
time of great political instability to secure appointment as
Chancellor by President von Hindenburg.
Several observers have commented that
Bush's recent stunt of flying to the deck of an aircraft carrier
in order to make a televised speech might well have been copied
directly from Hitler's flight to the gigantic Nuremberg rally,
his plane dramatically circling in descent towards a million
people gathered in barbarian tribute, his purpose being to make
a filmed speech. Whether Bush's crowd consciously followed the
script set down by Hitler nearly seventy years ago matters less
than that the thinking is so similar, with the manipulation of
dramatic, militaristic props for propaganda being identical.
Bush never goes anywhere where his stage
crew has not first assembled giant flags as background. He always
wears a sizeable American-flag pin on his lapel. This kind of
totemic, obsessive use of flags was absolutely characteristic
of Hitler.
Hitler was a troubled, difficult person,
but there is no evidence of any genuine insanity or psychosis
(see Dr. Fritz Redlich's excellent study, "Hitler, Diagnosis
of a Destructive Prophet"). It is precisely this fact that
made him, and makes those like him, all the more dangerous. It
is easy to dismiss a genuine lunatic.
Given any circumstances other than those
of the unique and troubled period in which he embraced German
politics, Hitler would have been an utter failure, likely to
be laughed off the stage with his sputtering, eye-bulging speech
and fantasy claims. He had never, except for extremely brief
and intermittent times, before entering politics in the revolutionary
ruin that was post-war Germany, made an honest living.
There is a close parallel here with Bush.
Except when friends of his powerful father made attractive, low-risk,
undemanding opportunities available to him, young Bush was a
failure. He demonstrated no business acumen, no academic application,
and he did a lot of aimless drifting, much like Hitler's time
in Vienna before the First World War. There are totally unexplained
periods in Bush's early adult life, an extraordinary thing for
an American national public figure.
Even as governor of Texas, Bush showed
no skill other than the kind of animal cunning one associates
with some of the nation's shabbiest politics. Many do not realize
that the office of governor of Texas, despite sounding important,
is a relatively weak office, so the people putting Bush forward
at the time took a small risk of his doing any serious damage.
Bush was not a national figure when he
was put up for the Republican presidential nomination. Yet, suddenly,
he appeared on the national stage, pockets bulging with $77 million
in campaign contributions, an amount that could render even Kermit
the Frog a formidable opponent in America's phony, advertising-
and marketing-drenched politics. Of course, as quickly as these
funds were depleted, they were topped up again.
The support of German industrialists
was an important part of Hitler's being able to sustain his slow
rise to power. Many of these business people thought they would
heavily profit from the success of the odd, theatrical little
man they bankrolled. The one absolute certainty was that Germany
under Hitler would rearm, massively and quickly, with lots of
profitable contracts coming available. Bush's measures for defense
and security after 9/11, almost instantly swelled to tumor-like
masses, offer an unprecedented opportunity for well-positioned
people to make new fortunes.
Bush's apparent ability to be charming
face-to-face has been publicized by insiders wishing to humanize
his public image. Well, that is a characteristic Hitler possessed
in abundance: on the one hand, he could intimidate people with
fits of horrifying anger, and yet, as many attested, he could
be utterly charming. He could order wholesale murder and yet
have a gracious, polite tea with his hardworking secretaries.
Of course, the sense of charm assumed you did not have to spend
great periods of time with Hitler as did the captive members
of his immediate party entourage. For them, Hitler was reduced
to a boring, repetitive self-proclaimed expert on everything
who insisted on discussing everything, endlessly. One can only
imagine the tedious conversations of a Bush comfortable with
his cronies over a charred cow down in Crawford. We actually
got an unintended glimpse of this private world when the BBC
"accidentally" ran some television shots of Bush before
a big speech sharing the kind of gestures and comments to smiling
flunkies one might expect from a small-town, grade-school basketball
coach.
Bush has demonstrated his capacity for
vicious anger a number of times, despite his handlers working
very hard to hide this from the public. His response to the nomination
challenge of John McCain was manic. His response to the rightful
and fitting challenges of France or Germany to his Iraqi policies
has been ugly, with pathetic factotum, Colin Powell, given the
job of announcing various gibes, slights, and threats in the
aftermath (Harry Belafonte's description of Powell, I regret
to say, has proved devastatingly accurate). The closest parallel
to Hitler's behavior was in Bush's approach to Iraq. It is clear
that he was determined--despite all facts contrary to his claims,
despite the heroic efforts of weapons inspectors, despite the
voice of most of the world's diplomatic community, and despite
demonstrations by millions--to invade Iraq. The litany of false
and even irrelevant claims made over and over combined with his
lack of shame or embarrassment when found out time and again,
closely mimics a behavior pattern of Hitler who more or less
invented the "big lie" technique.
Even more closely resembling Hitler was
Bush's insane rush towards a huge, high-stakes gamble on quick
success in Iraq. He displayed not an ounce of statesmanship.
It mattered not at all that he put the UN, NATO, and the EU through
a crisis and embarrassed longstanding allies to get what he wanted.
Had the invasion bogged down into bloody street-fights and large
numbers of Americans been killed, Bush could not have survived
the political results. This was the purest obsessive, go-for-broke
gamble.
What we witnessed leading up to the invasion
bore uncanny similarities to the Munich crisis of 1938, but not
the ones so many American commentators point to about a weak-willed
Chamberlain appeasing a brutal dictator. People seem to forget
Bush was making the threats, not Hussein.
Hitler was going to invade the Czechs,
and that was that, but he was willing to toy with war-weary Western
statesmen, to gain a bit of time or psychological advantage,
and to appear open to argument before hurling his divisions over
the border. So, too, Bush paused in invading Iraq, allowing Western
statesmen to argue their case a bit and make various proposals,
but he never listened to them, only hoping he might gain a few
more allies, a shred of legitimacy, or a bit of psychological
advantage.
This provides a very good example of
how we do not learn from history. We are most of us always looking
for exactly the same lesson from a vaguely similar historical
situation, much as generals are said always prepared to fight
the last war. But history, as has been accurately observed, is
a flowing river which is not the same when touched a second time.
Current events are never quite parallel with those of an earlier
time despite superficial similarities. However, human character,
patterns of behavior, and human interactions are things that
may be profitably studied, being constant enough to make valid
comparisons over time.
Here, too, is an example of how history
can be manipulated to abuse political opponents. Critics on the
left, in opposing the invasion of Iraq, have been accused of
supporting a dictator. This is nonsense, of course, but like
many bits of propaganda that become lodged into day-to-day understanding
through endless repetition on television and in newspapers, it
is nevertheless a powerful nonsense.
Too many people do not understand that
the preponderance of forces in Germany before the Second World
War were for peace. Hitler sometimes spoke of peace eloquently,
but, as we now know, he had a rather odd definition of the word.
When it looked like Germany was on the brink of war, great waves
of despair went through Germany. All the bands and panoply of
Nazi propaganda could not cover up people's sullen reaction displayed
even under dictatorship.
But when Hitler quickly defeated Poland
and then quickly defeated France, the mood in Germany immediately
changed. Hitler had achieved a relatively bloodless victory of
stunning proportions. He became a hero, a national savior. And
so with Bush's massive, high-tech assault on pathetic little
Iraq. Anti-war feelings and demonstrations did not rise so suddenly
at the start of the much greater conflict in Vietnam, but with
a quick, safe victory (safe for Americans, that is), Bush has
become something of a shining figure. So much so, that at a recent
dinner, a single dinner, Bush raised $18 million in campaign
funds. Hitler's manipulation of the idea of peace is paralleled
in Bush's manipulation of the idea of justice. Both are complete
distortions. Bush's genuine feeling for justice was perhaps best
captured during the election campaign with his smug, joking response
to a question about a soul on death row in Texas. For those with
acute perceptions, still not dulled on a steady diet of synthetic
emotions and cardboard ideas from television and Hollywood, there
could be no surer sign of how potentially dangerous this man
is.
John Chuckman
lives in Canada. He can be reached at: chuckman@counterpunch.org
Yesterday's
Features
Standard
Schaefer
Lifting the Sanctions: Who Benefits?
Ron
Jacobs
Long Live People's Park!
Michael
Greger, MD
Return of Mad Cow: US Beef Supply
at Risk
Elaine
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Sam
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Steve
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