Why is Iraq compared to Germany after WWII ?

[kentuck]

I heard it mentioned again on one of the talk shows this AM. With comments such as "it took much longer to rebuild Germany.." etc. Where is the comparison? Germany was bombed to small bits. The Iraq "war" cannot be compared to WWII. Iraq was in fairly good shape when the "war" ended - it was only when the troops arrived in Baghdad that matters got much worse. Even the electricity was on during the "war"...

But to suggest that it should take as long to rebuild Iraq as it did Germany is propaganda bullshit. There is no security in Iraq. The price they are asking is much too high for the minimal amount of damage done. It's not going to repair Iraq - it's going to repair the finances of Halliburton.

[wtmusic]

1. Iraq should be compared to Poland before WWII

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

2. It's bullshit..this article rips the notion apart

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Articles3/Chuckman_Iraq.htm

[disgruntella]

3. shill for Bush are trying to compare the Iraq war

With the last "popular" war, World War II, in order to get people to view the Iraq war as an acceptable American endeavor. IMHO anyway.

I mean popular in the sense of not being protested by large groups of people -- I know there were Americans against World War II (not to mention the Americans and Canadians who were sent to internment camps during that war), but the public opposition was not on the level of the Vietnam era. (I admit complete ignorance of the Korean War)

[FloridaPat]

4. Because they don't want us to compare Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is a mess and no end in site. How anyone thought Iraq would be different I have no idea. Nor can they compare Iraq to all the other 30 or 40 countries we've invaded since WW2 to bring democracy to - because they're still not democracies. So they have to go all the way back to WW2.

Just like they have to go back to Kennedy to justify the percentage of the budget spent on the military. Pretty soon we'll be back to the Revolutionary War.

[Skittles]

5. come on

it's one of the RNC talking points. They ARE getting desperate, obviously.

[bfusco]

6. It's total lies and propaganda

The attempt to draw parallels is spin being performed by a desperate administration. It is impossible to compare the two because Iraq had not acted aggresively outside it's borders since 1990 and did not threaten world stability.

Check out the following http://www.carlisle.army.mil/ssi/pubs/2003/reconirq/reconirq.pdf

It's a report from the Army War College written before the war occured warning how underprepared we were for post-Saddam Iraq, the monumental challenges we would face and that if we did not get it write, a region far more violent and dangerous then Hussein ever was would emerge. Unfortunatly, our media whores were not revealing these insights to the public as part of their pre-war pep rally. Page 13 details the progress made in reconstruction of Germany and says the following:


"Within three months of Germany's surrender, German armed force were demobilized and disarmed, more then 4 million POW's and refugees were cared for and repatriated, basic service to devestated cities were restored,a potential revolt was discovered and quashed, working local goverments were created, and the police and courts were recreated."

There it is our own military saying what was accomplished in the summer of 1945.

We are no where nere this point in Iraq. Post war reconstruction began two years before the surrender of Germany and was a monumental effort. Bush is no Harry Truman and there is nothing comperable to the Marshall Plan. It has now been leaked from the Joint Chiefs of Staff that there was no post-war game plan. If only things looked as good as post-war Germany. They are desperate and lying their asses off in trying to compare this to WWII.

[madrchsod]

7. because the writers of such

crap believe that most people who would read this are so lacking in understanding history that they would believe it. remember most people who lived during ww2 are over 75+, anyone born after the 60`s only read about it in history class-maybe.

[RichM]

8. A cheap effort to endow the Iraq travesty with the "noble" aura of WWII

-- which in itself in significant ways is a distorted & selective version of history (but that's another story).

In the minds of most Americans, WWII was noble; that generation was the "greatest generation;" we defeated a marvelously evil enemy; the war effort involved sacrifice -- but after it was all over, we had record-breaking prosperity for 25 years.

So, if the miserable liars leading our country can successfully link Iraq to WWII in the public mind, they score a great propaganda coup. Kind of like taking a robbery of a gas station, & training people to think it's the Mona Lisa.

[tokenlib]

9. Pathetic attempt at making Iraq war legitimate

And so far they've gotten away with it. But the tide is turning...