Posted on 03/26/2003 9:08:56 AM PST by Maedhros
In an article titled "Nazism Threatens the World Anew" published in the Egyptian opposition daily Al-Ahali, former Egyptian Minister of War, Amin Huweidi, compares U.S. President George W. Bush's policy to Adolf Hitler's Nazism. Following are excerpts from the article:(1)
"Our generation has known days when the banners of Nazism, with the swastikas, waved in Germany, in the 1930s. We thought that after Adolf Hitler's defeat the term 'Nazism' had disappeared from the dictionaries of statesmanship... But for many weeks now this term has again echoed, [first] from the lips of German Justice Minister [Herta] Daeubler-Gmelin, who said that 'President Bush's policy resembles the policy of the Nazi leader Hitler...'"
President Bush's Actions are like Hitler's
"If we look at what President Bush is doing these days with regard to President Saddam and if we compare it to what Hitler did to one of his great commanders – Field Marshal [Erwin] Rommel - perhaps some of us will support the words of the German minister."
"Before the cannons of the world war fell silent, a horrifying event happened to the German leader [Rommel]. One day two officers knocked on his door, and when he opened it, they saluted in the Nazi fashion,... handed him a loaded pistol and shouted, 'Heil Hitler... The Fuhrer orders you to commit suicide.' The man took the pistol without hesitation, held its barrel to his temple, and squeezed the trigger...' Hitler had suspected that the commander was conspiring against him and therefore ordered him removed in this terrible fashion. The Field Marshal did not commit suicide – rather, he was 'forced to commit suicide'... an act that only a Nazi leader [Hitler] would dare to do..."
"Today, on the threshold of the 21st century, the same scenario is unfolding before our eyes, with obvious differences. The U.S. president is demanding that the Iraqi president, in the name of democracy and freedom, will destroy his military arsenal, including his weapons of mass destruction – and if he does not Bush will surround him with his forces and will destroy the shrine on the heads of those within; men, women, and children."
"President Bush gives the pistol loaded with bullets to President Saddam for him to commit suicide, because carrying out what is demanded of the Iraqi president – despite his emphasis that he has no weapons of this kind – is an act of suicide. Moreover, this is a forced suicide that replicates Rommel's tragedy with Hitler 60 years ago..."
"Furthermore, the tragedy of our time is undoubtedly more horrible, as it is not forcing the suicide of one person but the suicide of a people."
Attacking Saddam will not Stop WMD Production
"What does President Bush want? Does he want the head of President Saddam Hussein? This is a naïve request since he does not realize that Iraq is full of heads similar to the head of 'Abu Uday' [i.e. Saddam]. Does he want the nuclear warheads... [that are] threatening the security of the U.S.? This [too] is a naïve request, because even if he gets them the problem will not be solved. The side effects [of these weapons] will remain, and are even more dangerous – as knowledge of the technology to manufacture these weapons will remain in the heads of the scientists and the minds of their manufacturers."
"Some scientists say that in order to prevent the proliferation of these weapons we must gather all the scientists working in this area and behead them... Is it possible?"
Guantanamo is like Auschwitz
"To the eyes of the entire world, and under the protection of the international organizations, the American administration banishes Afghans and others who are suspected [of involvement] in the events of September 11, chained and with their eyes covered, to the detention camps at Guantanamo, Cuba, to live in cages surrounded by a barbed-wire fence."
"Whatever these people's crimes - this treatment is not fitting for a civilized government, as it is a return to the deeds of Hitler when he ordered Himmler to establish the detention camps at Auschwitz, in Poland, and at Mauthausen, in Austria, so as to gather thousands of people in them. It was this wicked matter that was later brought to the courts of Nuremberg."
"Thus acted the Nazis, and we hated them and inscribed these things in the black pages of history. If, after that, the Americans act in a similar way, then there is nothing more shameful than this. It tarnishes... their name as a country, as an administration, and as a people..."
President Bush's Ideas Resemble Hitler's "Mein Kampf"
"Hitler demanded Lebensraum [living space] for the Germans, as Germany had no living space. This space was flexible, and nothing defined it except for the [German] willpower [Willensbildung]... 'Only by means of taking over a broad piece of land can a people ensure its survival and its existence. Our vital space is in the east. Nature gives ownership of the land only to the people possessing sufficient power to take it over.'"
"This can be implemented only by applying the law of war of survival, as Hitler wrote in his book Mein Kampf: 'The world is a jungle in which only the fittest can live and only the powerful can rule... Providence has given the right of mastery to the Aryan people, since it is entitled to the credit for all humanity's achievements...'"(2)
"The words are clear: The hegemony that Hitler wanted to [achieve] in Europe was the key to hegemony in the world, and in order to impose this hegemony, [Germany] needed power – something that was possible [to obtain] only by removing the restrictions placed upon it in the Treaty of Versailles, then by quitting the League of Nations and not attending the disarmament conferences."
"Seventy years later, President Bush wants to increase the [U.S.] defense budget to $355 billion. His intention is that in 2005, defense expenditures will be equal to the budgets of all the countries in the world put together, in order to rule the world in accordance with the principles he stated in September 2002, under the title 'The U.S's National Security Strategy' – according to which the U.S. has the right to declare a preemptive war against anyone threatening its national security, and to prevent any country or group of countries from challenging its military superiority, [i.e.] 'anyone who is not with us is against us.'"
"This gives the U.S. the freedom to act independently, even [disregarding] international legitimacy... As we see, what Hitler wrote in his book Mein Kampf is much less grave than what is done by the American administration, both within and outside the U.S...."
Endnotes:
(1) Al-Ahali (Egypt), February 3, 2003.
(2) Translation from the Arabic.
Those heads will look lined up on top of a wall in Baghdad. Once they have free elections and the courts are working they will no doubt keep beheading as punishment for capital crimes. It will take some time to rid the country of Saddam's henchmen but it is not an impossible task.
One of the slogan writers for the anti-war demonstrators. Catchy, simple, irrelevant slogans.
There are only two sides in this conflict.
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