The Neo cons and the Nazi

[Daveparts]

One of the troubles with comparative history is that history some times recalls events through the eyes of emotion. We look back on history remembering only the positive attributes without remembering the errors and failures that brought us to that point in the first place. Conversely we vilify our enemy’s and history marginalises them and reduces them to cartoon cardboard stereotypes which makes the identification with modern day counterparts all the more difficult.

I have studied history all of my adult life and as Churchill described it, “it’s flickering lamps lighting the darkened corridors.” The character of Adolf Hitler has always fascinated me, not because I admire or respect Hitler, just the opposite. What I am fascinated by is how a man with very little education, no wealth, no influence or family connections could rise to become one of the most powerful men on earth all in the space of twenty years.

Success can be still elusive for men and women with fabulous credentials and family influence. Financial backing is no guarantee of success and it presents us with a strange dichotomy that some never succeed despite having all the tools and yet some seem to succeed almost despite themselves. Winston Churchill took forty years to rise to the office of Prime Minister due in part to his checkered career, a man of whom it was once said, “was a man with a brilliant future behind him.”

Harry Truman started as a county road commissioner and through boss party politics became a Senator. But Truman was a hard worker and had always tried to do a good job, he had no wealth himself so he understood the public’s feelings about breadbasket issues. A failed small businessman he mistrusted banks and corporations and during World War two made a name for himself by investigating government contractor’s corruption.

He was added to the presidential ticket because of his good name and by failed brinkmanship on the part other candidates. The realization that Roosevelt was in poor health and might not live through the term was understood. It was assumed incorrectly that Truman being a loyal party man would just play along. And so it was that a man assumed the most powerful office in the world through quirks of fate and miscalculation.

So it happens, quirks of fate, strange occurrences or sudden deaths. But what of our current President, George Walker Bush. Much has been said about this man both pro and con as the partisan media spin the story to fit their own agenda. The right wing partisans attempt to compare him with Abraham Lincoln, that Lincoln as well as Bush worked out side the constitution to solve problems caused by domestic turmoil. But to my mind this assessment is not a fair or accurate.

Lincoln did not coin the term Civil War as a political catch phrase as Bush did with his the war on terror. Lincoln from his very first words in office proclaimed he would renounce even his own principles and beliefs to save the union. Lincoln had a legitimate credible military force forming to overthrow the government while Bush offers only shadowy threats of some far off evil doers. So Lincoln’s constitutional transgressions are akin to a man stealing bread to feed his family while Bush’s are akin to a man robbing a bank to feed his family.

The left wing partisans myself included have drawn comparisons of Bush to Hitler and there are many direct correlations. But the more I’ve thought about it, it came down on me that there are just as many differences, the most striking of which can be described by one word, intent. Just as with the comparisons of Bush to Lincoln it is intent that separates the two of them, making one a giant and the other merely a thug. Lincoln took it to heart that it was his calling to preserve the union by any means necessary. Bush’s secretive actions and claim’s of executive privilege are disguised and designed to save only his own personal agenda.

These two men George W. Bush and Adolf Hitler are so very similar in emotional temper, both men arrogant, both men condescending of their adversaries. Both men with a pronounced streak of cruelty and callousness towards their fellow man.

Yet both men entered the world so differently, Hitler was the son of a minor customs official. His father domineering and abusive to both young Adolf and to his mother and lit the flame of Hitler’s homicidal rage. W. was born into a wealthy family of power and privilege and little is known about how George’s father treated his mother only that his father was out of the home a great deal of the time.

Both Hitler and young Bush lost siblings while still in childhood, to Hitler it impressed upon him the image of the strong and the weak. He had survived because he was stronger and that belief mutated into his feelings of superiority. Young George’s sister died of cancer and the family held no funeral or memorial, what is a young child to take from that but perhaps that they are worthlessness or inferior.

Hitler’s father had sent him at age eleven to a private high school so that his son might follow in his footsteps as a civil servant. The young man rebelled against his father insisting that his desire was to become a painter, a great artist. Because of the bitter feud with his father Hitler claimed he stopped studying at school and his grades declined.

Young George was sent to Phillips academy also a private school and his father’s alma mater where he as well was being groomed to follow in his father’s footsteps. Unable to make any of the sports teams young George instead became the head cheerleader, could this have been George’s attempt at rebellion? An attempt to humiliate his father?

Hitler’s grades had been good but not exceptional in grade school and after leaving private school Hitler transferred to a public high school but left before graduating.
George W. has often commented on his poor academic ability extolling that even a C student can succeed. Bush went on to Yale University again his father’s alma matter where he had to be accepted as a legacy after being turned down by several other schools.

Hitler wanted to follow his dream of becoming a great artist and the only way for him to do that was to apply to the Veinna Academy of Fine Arts the Austrian national academy. While Hitler was not accepted to the school of art he was given a letter of recommendation to the architectural academy. Amazingly a young man without even a high school diploma was recommended to a state college. Young Hitler considered this to be a slight but in fact it was insightful into his personality. Hitler’s deficiency was in drawing living things, not that he didn’t have a talent for art but for warmth.

W’s years at Yale were again an academic challenge and like many college students given their first freedom he showed a lack of self control. But Bush pledged to a fraternity and discovered his first taste of power by adding to the hazing ritual the burning and scaring of pledges. Graduating at the height of the Vietnam War Bush joined the Texas Air National Guard. His acceptance into a Guard squadron in 1968 could not have been accomplished without family influence, as the waiting lists were miles long.

Upon joining the guard young W asked for the most coveted job in the squadron that of a pilot. Passing over 1500 names and passing the test by the lowest score possible W was admitted to flight school and just to guarantee that he would never see combat he was trained to fly the already obsolete F102 Convair. His squadron was nicknamed the champagne squadron as it was made up of the son’s of the wealthy, local dignitaries and members of the Dallas Cowboy’s

Young Hitler’s though unaccepted at college was now exposed to a new world as well, being from outside of Linz Vienna was an explosion of new ideas for the young man. He toured the museums of Vienna and fell in love with opera, to understand Hitler you must understand his love of opera as it permeated all aspects of his life. It was also Hitler’s first exposure to Jewish culture while not openly raised to be antisemetic it was pervasive in the society.

The Jews who would later serve in the Kaisers army would do so in segregated units not unlike the Jim Crow laws in the south. Hitler believing his genius would make it self apparent lived as a vagabond selling paintings and doing odd jobs to survive. He lived always in hunger and near starving but those around him remembered him as no C student but as a bookworm devouring everything he could get his hands on. Hitler left Vienna most likely to escape military service as his lifestyle had made it hard for officials to pin him down.

How much anti Semitism Hitler harbored at this point in life is unknown but it was obvious that here was a hungry starving failure of a young man exposed to a new culture different and alien from his own. To young eyes they appeared to have everything while he had nothing. While in Vienna a Jewish shop keeper of a second hand store allowed Hitler to hang paintings on consignment and felt sorry for the young mans plight gave him a second hand overcoat. To you and I we would consider it an act of charity and would be grateful but to Hitler it was an insult, a Jew rubbing his nose in his poverty. Just as he took it as a slight when he was recommended to architectural college.

So both of these men where rebellious youths both pushed to follow their fathers careers. Yet one had every opportunity to academic excellence and was a marginal student and the other lived in flophouses reading at every available moment. They were both spoiled as children with strong fathers who were absent from the home Hitler’s by death and Bushes by the nature of his occupation. Both young men avoided active military service Bush by family influence and Hitler by lifestyle. But time and events would soon run out and the military would catch up with young Adolf Hitler.

In 1914 he was inducted into the First Company of the 16th Bavarian division where he was twice wounded in combat. In 1916 he was wounded in the leg at the battle of the Somme and was decorated with an Iron Cross second class in August 1918 he was awarded the Iron cross first class. This was an unusual honor for an enlisted man to receive the first class award and showed great courage. But the most likely reason that Hitler excelled in soldiering was it gave vent to his homicidal rage, it proved to him again by his own survival that he was strong and that he was somehow chosen, that his genius would yet be recognized.

During the last battle of Ypres Hitler was blinded in a British gas attack, convalescing in hospital he heard the Chaplain announce that the Kaiser had fled and Germany had sought an armistice. His rage was not so much at Germany losing the war as it was that he personally was losing his war, no more death and carnage. But only everyday life and the struggle to exist.

Young George flying his F102 convair’s decided coincidentally that he would rather not fly at the same time pilot drug testing was introduced in 1972 and sought a transfer to the Alabama National Guard and then leaving the guard entirely eight months early to acquire his MBA from Harvard. It is unknown how a C student was admitted to graduate school but young W graduated in 1975 with an MBA in business.

In 1976 W was arrested and convicted of drunken driving and had his license suspended. Young Adolf as well had become falling down drunk after leaving school in Linz, he awoke to find himself sleeping in the gutter. He later discovered he had lost his certificate from school and when he went to retrieve a copy from the headmaster he was returned instead the original just as the headmaster had found it after young Hitler had wiped his ass with it and stuck it in the door.

The strangeness of the similarity of the two young men both with issues of anger and self-control and one vows never again to drink while the other relishes the loss of self-control. How can it be explained? Hitler never drank again and strongly disapproved of anyone who did verses W who almost made a career of it.

When World War One ended Hitler returned to his painting while drawing a stipend from the military. But Hitler was viewed as a good soldier and a company man and at a time when the fortunes of the German military were at a low ebb. The military needed trustworthy political officers to make morale speeches and to report on troublemakers.

This was a dream job for Corporal Hitler speaking to a captive audience and it allowed him to develop his technique of public speaking. In our cardboard cut out of Hitler we see the fifteen or twenty second sound bites of a man screaming and pounding the lectern and we wonder, how could people fall for that? But Hitler’s love of opera had taught him how to start softly, sweetly, beseeching the crowd to listen. Then to weave his sad tales of woe and misfortune, how he had been done wrong but that his lament wasn’t for himself but for the German people for they had been done wrong as well.

Then continuing on to act two, the gods assigned to him his holy mission. That he was not there to give to Germany anything she didn’t rightfully deserve but to return what has been stolen from her by the November criminals! With tears in his eyes he would explain about the November criminals who sold them all out who are the cause of all the sufferings of the German people, the hungry children and the penny less elderly.

The myth of the November criminals came about by the apparent sudden collapse of Germany, the Kaiser claimed that the military had misled him. The Military claimed they were misled about finance until the military annouced in a staff meeting that the army could not continue for more than ten more days. To the man on the street it appeared sudden but had been long in coming both militarily and financially.
With the military collapse came the financial collapse and so the myth of betrayal became easy to accept.

Even during his days in the trenches Hitler had spoken about the hidden hand now he put a name on it, it was the Jews. He claimed that while a soldier that all the clerks were Jews and all Jews were clerks. That all the bankers and financiers were Jews it was a Jewish conspiracy and this fit nicely with the assertions that it wasn’t Germany’s fault at all but fifth columnist Jews. All the average German had to do was forget the eagerness with which Germany had gone to war. How she had been outnumbered in troops and finance, fighting a two front war from the beginning.

Young W with his military service behind him and his MBA in hand sought to make his fortune. After several failed business attempts young Bush begins his political career running for the Texas State house and while losing by 6% points young Bush sets a state record for fundraising. Again amazingly these two men arrive at the same place through opposite roads. Hitler began speaking in beer halls in what we in America would call a roadhouse with different rooms each with different activities. The speakers could get up and say their peace while being heckled by the drinking crowd. Bush begins in politics with money and an organization but with no record or real agenda. Hitler begins with agenda and a record but no money or organization.

Both men rebelled against following in their father’s footsteps both men unsuccessful in their early ambitions in life. Yet in their military service they were opposites Bush was liked by his compatriots but given low marks by his superiors while Hitler was disliked by his fellow soldiers and seen as a brown noser



End of Part One

[Uncle Joe]

1. Fascinating analysis Daveparts,

one odd thing about Germany at the end of The Great War or World War One, that has always intrigued me was, this was one of the only times in history, that I'm aware of were a nation in command of enemy territory lost the peace treaty. I believe this is what blew the German People away in regards to he way it ended.

Thanks for the thread.

[sarcasmo]

2. Nicely done daveparts, but I fear you will get flamed by those who don't want us to use the word

NAZI.



Kick and Nom