Interesting analogy- WWII and the Gulf War

I heard this descriptive likeness a few days ago concerning WWII Germany and our present-day malady concerning Islamic fanaticism. Tell me what you think. O.K., here goes... During World War II did the allies fight against the Nazi Party or did they fight against Germany? If the fight was against Germany then it can be safe to assume that the vast majority of German people sided with Hitler. Right? Even if this was not the case, then people inside of Germany should have rebelled against the Nazi leadership to effectively topple that sadistic form of government and by not effectively doing so by default , sided with the Nazi's.
Comparitively, are the vast majority of Islamic people in the world eerily quiet, for the most part, concerning their stance/voice regarding Muslim fanaticism and the continuing hatred against Israel and the West? Moreover, if some faction of militant fanaticism evolved within the borders of the United States to terrorize another country, race, or whatever (of people), it can be safely assumed that the majority of Americans would be up in arms and voices against them!Consequently, it is with this same quiet stance that the majority of Muslims in the world have taken by not speaking out and comdemning the policy of al-Queda and the likes, armed fanaticism against the west that they have BY DEFAULT made themselves guilty of siding with the enemy...

 

Its not the easy to rebel, especially against some one (like the Nazis or Saddam) who could very easily kill you and your family should you threaten to do so.

Its common knowledge that the majority of Germans were not Nazis. They overlooked what was happening because Hitler and the Nazi party had brough back wealth and prosperity to post-WWI Germany. WWII was a war against Nazism and Fascism, but we were also at war with Germany as a whole. The German People populated the German Army and produced German Weapons and the like - it wasnt an effort by the Nazis. The German people were also terrified of the Gestapo and the SS (and Hitler Youth) to the extent that they wouldnt even think about rebelling. Would you try and start a rebellion when you could be wisked away in the middle of the night never to be heard of again? Its the same situation in the Mid East - who knows when or where the next bomb will go off, or when the Secret Police will come knocking in the middle of the night. Iraq under Saddams reign is very similiar to the Germany under Hilters - lots of mass killings of those not deemed worthy (the Jews in Germany = the Kurds in Iraq).

 

Propaganda can be a strong tool. Goebbels[spelling?]was a master at this.He hid [or lied] everything from the German people.Anything from Stalingrad to Rommel's[ehem!]untimely death.Whether that's going on in the middle-east I don't know. As Mussolini said the Kurds really had no chance up against Sadamm's army back in Desert Storm.Not unless the Iraqi people rose up too.But hey,maybe they did'nt mind being ruled by a dictator after all.

 

Yes, I'm glad that all that propaganda has been stamped out !

Except, of course, for 'sexed-up' dossiers, 45-minute WMD deployment, etc....

 

Recently heard this comparison;Bush's er...Coalition's handling of the middle east to using a garden hose on a Hornet's nest. Just stirring up sh..!

 

If I would have to walk in the shoes of a 18+ German male living in 1939, and if Hitler would have drafted me into his Wehrmacht, I wouldn’t spend too many thoughts about not killing „the enemy“ (which would be Englishmen, ‘merkins, Russians and so on) AT THIS TIME, because propaganda told me:

a) Since the end of WW I, the other countries did everything to suppress Germany
b) The other countries are threatening my country with destruction.
c) Britain and France declared war on my country.
d) Bolshevism wants to destroy my countries regime, culture and way of living.

Guess under this circumstances and with the information at hand, I’d fight for the Wehrmacht with clean conscience, but this is a more hypothetical question, as I wasn’t even born then.

On the other hand, I was drafted and taught to properly use an assault rifle (and HAWKs ) on anyone who shall invade my country, no matter if his name would have been Ivan, Mohammed, John, Francois or even my own cousin Robert from East-Germany. If invaded, I would not feel any remorse to snipe the agressor at any occasion, no matter if he drives in a Humvee or an UAZ.

If that simple act of patriotism and national duty, fighting for your country when under attack, makes one a Nazi or an Al Quida terrorist by default in your books, so be it.

If that assumption is really right (don’t forget the treatment of the Native Indians and the Slavery issue), it makes the American people somewhat special compared to the vast majority of the people in the world. Actually, with the bad track record of the people's determination to not allowing supressive regimes to gain power (examples: Germany, entire Eastern Europe, China, most of Middle and South America, almost entire Africa) I can't share this optimistic approach. You just know it once you faced it.

Guess it's all a matter of the POV.

[ 14. April 2004, 02:08 AM: Message edited by: AndyW ]

 

It is part of the assumption that you and your people are somehow different to everyone else in the world, 'fraid it ain't true. If under the right circumstances the Germans supported the Nazis, I honestly reckon most Americans, British, Russians or anyone else in the world would were they in the same situation. To paraphrase Goering, if you present it in the right way to your people, they will support ANYTHING.

 

They fought against nazi Germany. That is a completely nazified German people. There can be little discussion about the Nazi Party being too different than the average German —who did not only shut up about nazi terror, but applauded it and even contributed for it.

No, this is not the case. A rebellion against the most efficient police state in history was completely suicidal. And of course, at least until 1942 there were no reasons at all why to rebell.

Like the Germans under Hitler, not as long they had jobs, food, public services going on and no violence in the streets...

Completely right, Andy. But you also would have to add religious duty too in the Middle East matter. To an ignorant Arab, an invasion by a Western country on a Muslim one must very surely be a tremendous insult in the exact way the Western World sees with horror an attack upon another Western country. An example, if Argentinians are horrified by a bomb explosion in Madrid and they back the Spaniards up against the terrorists, they are not becoming an imperialist agressive western nation, are they?