Pravda: Rumsfeld Compares Lenin to Hitler

Pravda ^ | 2003-04-10 | Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY

[WaveThatFlag]

Donald Rumsfeld today proclaimed that Saddam Hussein will join others in the annals of the history books as a failed dictator, naming "Hitler, Stalin, Lenin and Ceausescu".

For Donald Rumsfeld's information, Vladimir Ulyanov came to power on a message of "bread and peace", setting in motion a process which was to bring a Medieval state to the front line of development and give to an oppressed, illiterate population with a near to zero chance of social mobility every opportunity for a good education, a guaranteed job, house, retirement pension, food, vodka, health care and cultural and sports opportunities second to none.

Vladimir Ulyanov set in motion a process which sees the Russian people today as well or better prepared than their peers abroad to perform any job anywhere on earth.

Vladimir Ulyanov set in motion the mechanism to create the Soviet Union, which heroically defeated the fascist forces of Hitler, who Rumsfeld mentions in the same breath as Lenin, which lost 20,000,000 of its souls and whose armed forces, under Stalin, who Rumsfeld also mentions in the same breath, killed 90% of all German soldiers in the war.

That everything was not perfect in Vladimir Ulyanov's Russia is patently clear. However, to compare him to Hitler is wholly inappropriate and demonstrates a degree of arrogance and ignorance shocking in a person at the political level which Rumsfeld has somehow attained.

At least Vladimir Ulyanov did not flout international law and launch a murderous campaign against a sovereign nation, massacring civilians, leaving women and children without limbs. Maybe Rumsfeld forgot to add Bush to the list. For Rumsfeld's information, Lenin was Vladimir Ulyanov's pseudonym.

If Rumsfeld compares Lenin to Hitler, maybe we should compare Bush to Genghis Khan and Rumsfeld himself to Jabba the Hutt.

[Hacksaw]

And took it away again as soon as the situation improved ... with the associated massacre of those who participated and were successful in it.

I am not sure about the massacres, but I know he took it away. The capitalist measures were pretty well known as temporary (perhaps not by those practicing it). Castro does the same thing today. All I am saying is that Lenin was a piker compared to Stalin. Supposedly, on his deathbed, Stalins's comrades were so afraid of him that they let him die rather than allow him to recieve treatment.

[Willie Green]

So they're trying to draw distinctions as to which tyrant was worse than others?
Okay, Lenin certainly deserves placement somewhere in the top ten, but I'll agree that he has a lower ranking than either Hitler or Stalin.
Ceausescu? Yeah, he was a tyrant, too. But I'm kinda surprised he made the list ahead of Mussolini, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, etc. etc.

I don't know what good it is to debate which was worse since they were all extremely evil bumwipes.

Hey, howcome Klinton didn't make the list?

[Right Wing Professor]

The Black Book of Communism estimates that in the first two months of the Red Terror in the Fall of 1918 alone, the Bolsheviks executed between 10000 and 15000 people, more than the total number executed by all the Tsars between 1825 and 1917. The massacres of peasnats in the civil war from 1919 to 1920, in the revolts of 1920 and 1921, the deaths in the Great Famine of 1921-22; all of these can be attributed to Lenin. While Lenin was put out of action by a stroke in 1923, at that stage he was well ahead of Hilter's pace for his first six years; and of course he laid the groundwork for Stalin.

Rummy had it right, as usual.

[Mister Magoo]

I think Baghdad Bob has escaped and is writing under a pen name.

[Maedhros]

T B-H is an irrelevant joke.

[shotgun]

The only truth in this article is the opening paragraph.

Russia is still a Medieval state, the people are still greatly oppressed by the weight of decades of communism and illiteracy, the lives were marked with economic oppression, the bread was produced from imported American grain, the jobs were based upon a corupt system of inept, pass the buck cronism, and now the only pension they have left is the legacy of failure.

Plus we have witnessed thier advanced military equipment fail and they export zero technology to the west.

Oh why continue, these people long for the uptopian, though less than perfect, good ol' days...

[dead]

What a kook this author is. Lenin and Saddam were men of peace who improved the lot of the citizenry, Bush and Rumsfeld are in league with the devil.

Plus, he's an absolutely stellar armchair general. Check out his predictions from a week ago:

The initial “blitzkrieg” announced by Washington won a lot of ground and gained a lot of sand. With 100% air supremacy, this was not a surprise. However, if seven days were necessary to secure the port of Um Qas-r, which lies on the border with Kuwait, the notion remains that if this illegal campaign is to take Baghdad, defended by five divisions of Republican Guards who have sworn to fight to the death, this act of butchery will last a lot longer than the Pentagon had imagined.

Quite how long, not even Donald Rumsfeld knows. Here is a Secretary of Defence who likes to make decisions from a comfortable armchair, who likes to see Iraqi soldiers killed, who sends his own troops to their deaths, in the name of the energy lobby, and here is a man who shows a callous disregard for human life. Rumsfeld, along with Bush, appear more like the cohorts of the Devil than men of God, which they claim to be.

[tophat9000]

You know Henry Waxman looks like Lenin and Lenin right now looks like Wax

[dfwgator]

What's wrong with comparing Lenin to Hitler?

There's no comparing Lenin and Hitler. Lenin was ultimately responsible for many more deaths than Hitler.

[KayEyeDoubleDee]

Some people seem to be confusing Vladimir Ilyich (Ulyanov) as being Stalin, rather than Lenin. Not that there is a whole lot of difference between the two. I feel certain that Lenin participated in The Great Terror, until his death in the mid 20's.

[dfwgator]

We might mention that Stalin was Hitler's henchman until Hitler got greedy. They were in the same bed. Two socialists; two animals.

In fact, Hitler hoped to install Stalin as a puppet leader over the vanquished Russians had the Germans won the war, that's how impressed Hitler was with Stalin's brutality.

[ZULU]

Ummm, so what, Pravda?

Lenin and Hitler had a lot in common. So did Lenin's successor Stalin. As a matter of fact, Stalin probably massacred more human beings than Hitler did - and that says a lot.

[homeagain balkansvet]

What's wrong with comparing Lenin to Hitler?>>

Hitler murdered fewer people.

[Eagle Eye JR]

To quote one of my favorite movies "The Boondock Saints"

"They're all bad guys, now they're all dead bad guys."

[dfwgator]

Or Arnold in True Lies, "But they were all bad."

[Campion]

For Donald Rumsfeld's information, Vladimir Ulyanov came to power on a message of "bread and peace",

For Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey's information, Adolph Hitler came to power on a message of "freedom and bread".

That's not the only similarity.

[thinktwice]

Vladimir Ulyanov came to power on a message of "bread and peace",

Lenin's message, more accurately described, was "take and break."

[PuNcH]

Of which 19 million were killed directly by Stalin himself. Stupid commies are still with us -- here and there.

Actually it is alot worse than that. Stalin killed more along the lines of 40-60 million of his own people.

Funny that we should choose Stalin as our hero because he was betrayed by Hitler in a war which they both started.

[Billthedrill]

Yeh - I'm reading The Black Book of Communism now - you're referring to chapters 3 and 4, a depressing litany of just how ugly the place got long before Stalin took over.

Comrades! The kulak uprising in your five districts must be crushed without pity. The interests of the whole revolution demand such actions, for the final struggle with the kulaks has now begun. You must make an example of these people. (1) Hang (I mean hang publicly, so that people see it) at least 100 kulaks, rich bastards, and known blood-suckers, (2) Publish their names, (3) Seize all their grain. (4) Single out the hostages per my istructions in yesterday's telegram. Do all this so that for miles around people see it all, understand it, tremble, and tell themselves that we are killing the bloodthirsty kulaks and that we will continue to do so. Reply saying you have received and carried out these instructions. Lenin. P.S. Find tougher people.

That was 10 August, 1918. Nice fellow.

[q_an_a]

ONe of Lenin's first ordes was to kill all the farmers and take their land. When it went slow he asked, "Why are not more people hanging from trees." That is the legacy of Lenin. The next legacy was the murder of tens of thousands of Doctors, teachers and business people. That is why Lenin is just like Hitler. By the way after 1990, did the stautes of Lenin remain standing?