Keith Ellison got lots of flak for saying that the aftermath of 9/11 bore some resemblance to aftermath of the Reichstag fire in Germany in the 30s. Katie wrote about it, following obediently in Scott's footsteps. Some Jewish groups also complained, because we know that the Jews own the Holocaust and any accounts or rebroadcasts of, or comparisons to the Holocaust may not take place without the written permission of the licensors of Holocaust memories:
The Anti-Defamation League also stated "Whatever his views may be on the administration's response to 9/11 and the conduct of the war on terrorism, likening it to Hitler's rise to power and Nazism is odious and demeans the victims of 9/11 and the brave American men and women engaged in the war on terror. Furthermore, it demonstrates a profound lack of understanding about the horrors that Hitler and his Nazi regime perpetrated."
They're really touchy about this stuff, Keith; it's their bloody shirt, and they don't want to share it. Can't blame them really. Any time anybody criticizes Israel for say, dispossession of Palestinians or continued colonization of the West Bank, the bloody shirt is really handy! Just for the sake of keeping the Jewish community out of a snit, Keith, Spotty says pick another example.
How about Bonaparte seizing upon the chaos after the French Revolution? Here's what one contemporary said about Bonaparte:
He was a wretch who . . . had been the author of more misery and suffering to the world, than any being who ever lived before him. After destroying the liberties of his country, he has exhausted all its resources, physical and moral, to indulge his own manic ambition, his own tyrannical and overbearing spirit . . . What sufferings can atone . . . for the miseries he has already inflicted on his own generation, and on those yet to come, on whom he has rivetted the chains of despotism.
Oh Spotty! Bush hasn't caused more misery and suffering than anybody else!
That's true grasshopper; perhaps we should chat again after the Bush administration provokes a war with Iran and the whole Middle East blows up.
By the way Spotty, who is the author of the quote?
Spot thought you might have guessed by now, grasshopper. It was Thomas Jefferson writing in letters to Albert Gallitan and George Ticknor in 1815 and 1817.
Both historical analogies really stand for the same point: it is in times of social disorder and unrest that the demagogue and the dictator arises. The United States was clearly knocked off its pins by 9/11, and we had absolutely the wrong leader to guide us through it.
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