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[casi] Comparing Nazi propaganda with Bush-Blair rhetoric.



Dear listmembers,
There was an excellent crop of anti-war letters in the Guardian on
Saturday. Here is one. I particularly like it because I have been
collecting some Bush/Blair quotations and Hitler/Goebbels quotations
and putting together a quiz: guess who said what when. The
resonances are quite powerful, from the ludicrous claims (``we have to
attack them because they are such a huge threat to us'') to the
details (``obviously, for security reasons, we can't release all the
information we have that justifies our actions'',  ``we have no argument
with the Iraqi/Czech people'' etc). One might almost think that Blair's
speechwriters have studied the Nazi propagandists for inspiration.

Best Wishes, Fay

***********************************************************************
Saturday September 7, 2002
The Guardian


Listening to the rhetoric of Bush, Blair, "Rambo" Rumsfeld,
and Cheney this September as they try to ignite a popular
zest for war against Iraq (Threat of war, September 6), I
am reminded of the tone and language used by an earlier
leader hard at work stoking up a needless
[My note: ``needless'' is the wrong adjective. Invading Iraq
will serve the ``needs'' of the imperialists very well]
international crisis - Adolf Hitler in September 1938.

"I know quite well," he ranted at the Nuremberg rally, "that
through forbearance one will never reconcile so
irreconcilable an enemy as are the Czechs; they will only be provoked
to further presumption ... Herr Benes plays his tactical
game; he makes speeches, he wishes to negotiate ...
and to make little appeasement presents. But
in the long run that is not good enough!"

Change Czechs and Benes to Saddam Hussein and the
speech could have been drafted in Washington today.
Needless to say, President Benes's Czechoslovakia in
1938 posed no threat to Nazi Germany and was in any
case militarily outclassed - just as the militarily even more
outclassed Iraqis today in no way threaten the US or the
UK.

It is perfectly obvious why Washington and London wish
to delay publication of "the dossier" on Iraqi armaments
until the last possible moment - the "evidence" will simply
consist of yet more assertions and speculations of the
kind western public opinion has already found completely
unconvincing.

Meanwhile, the "democracy" about which Bush keeps prating
operates in a peculiar way: Bush and Blair are preparing
war, even though it is plain that most of their two peoples are
dead against it. This is no doubt why Blair will not recall
parliament. No debate prior to a decision. Rely
instead on the crown prerogative inherited by British prime
ministers from the absolute monarchy of the past.

Correlli Barnett

Norwich

************************************************************************

CASI Quiz: Nazi or Bush-Blair -- Who said what when?

[I'm still working on it. e.g. I'm looking for a Nazi quotation saying
that it was much better for the Czech or Polish people to be invaded than
suffer under their current government.]

Guess who said this, a German Nazi sometime between 1930 and 1945
or a US/UK politician sometime from 2000 onwards:

1) There's no telling how many wars it will take to
secure freedom in the homeland

2) We must wage a total war on terrorism

3) So total war is the demand of the hour.

4) We would not deserve to lead this nation if we tolerated to any degree
 whatsoever any threat to the homeland.

5) Peace through victory!

6) We are fighting for our lives. If we lose it will mean the
end of our nation and our history. This war is a defensive
war. It was forced on us by our enemies.

7a) Often [the leadership] cannot reveal the
 reasons for its actions without giving valuable
information to the enemy.

7b) Much of the evidence we have is intelligence
  and highly sensitive. It is not possible without compromising
people or security to release precise details.

8) We wage a war to save civilization, itself.  We did not seek it,
            but we must fight it -- and we will prevail.

9) We feel no hatred against the Czech/Afghan people.

10) We would have nothing against Czecho-Slovakia/Iraq if, first, it had not
suppressed Germans/Kurds, and, second, if it was not intended as the
instrument of a future attack on Germany/America.
Upon us falls the task of preventing such an attack at all costs.

11) This is a battle with only one outcome: our victory not theirs.

Answers:

1) George Bush Speech 5th Aug 2002
2) Ken Adelman Wednesday, February 13, 2002; Page A27 Washington Post
   (Adelman was assistant to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld from 1975
to 1977, and arms control director -- seriously: ``arms control''! --
under President Ronald Reagan.)
3) Joseph Goebbel's ``total war'' speech 18 February
    1943
4) Joseph Goebbel's speech 5 June 1943

5)  Joseph Goebbel's speech 24 December 1941

6) J. Goebbel's article 26 September 1943

7a) ibid

7b) Tony Blair speech to Parliament, 4th October 2001.

8) George W Bush speech 01 Nov 2001

9) Adolf Hitler speech April 3rd 1939

10) ibid

11) Tony Blair speech Labour Party conference, Brighton 2001


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+  Fay Dowker                       Physics Department               +
+                                   Queen Mary, University of London +
+  E-mail: f.dowker@qmul.ac.uk       Mile End Road,                   +
+  Phone:  +44-(0)20-7882-5047      London E1 4NS.                   +
+  Fax:    +44-(0)20-8981-9465                                       +
+  Homepage: http://monopole.ph.qmw.ac.uk/~dowker/home.html          +
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++






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