....LMB: "Non-Equivalence"....
April 15, 2003
Check out the cover of this week's Time Magazine.
Better yet, let's compare this picture with a Time Magazine cover from 1945:
That second set of images comes from a Time.com feature called "History of the 'X.'" (there isn't a link that goes directly to it, so go here and click on "History of the 'X'" on the right side of the screen). What does History of the X say?
During the first days of May 1945, the world did not quite know what had happened to Adolf Hitler. There was no shortage of rumors: he had been arrested by Gestapo chief Heinrich Himmler, he was on a U-boat headed for Japan, he had been killed by an exploding shell. What was known for certain was that Berlin was about to fall, and as TIME reported, "Adolf Hitler had been buried, dead or alive, in the rubble of his collapsing Third Reich." Unsure of what had happened to Hitler but certain that his rule was finished, TIME ran on its cover a portrait of Hitler with a bloody X through it.World War II and Gulf War II, of course, are very different conflicts, and though some commentators have compared aspects of Saddam's tyranny to Hitler's, the two dictators belong in separate leagues of cruelty and terror. But like Hitler, Saddam became the target of a U.S.-led war, and like Hitler, he had a reign that collapsed before the exact circumstances of his downfall became known.
In Hitler's case, six months had elapsed before a report was issued concluding that he had killed himself. No one knows for sure whether the Iraqi ruler is dead or alive. But this much was clear last week: Saddam Hussein's regime had been "X-ed."
So... Saddam Hussein isn't like Hitler, and the Iraq war was different than WWII, but they'll use the same imagery for both situations because...?
because all Muslims are like Hitler and long for your death. We need to convert everybody to be Americans -- then and only then will we have world peace. This government that we elected knows what it's doing - I like their "my way or the highway" approach. I'm going to be voting for them for decades to come. You should too - don't give power back to those wimpy pacifist Democrats, people. Remember how bad things were in the 90s with Clinton?
Posted by: George Butcher at April 15, 2003 01:17 PMIs "all Muslims are like Hitler" the best you could come up with to represent your islamophobic "compassionate" conservative government? What a silly childish remark for an American adult like you to make. Maybe you should live in an island completely isolated from what we civilised people call "society", and take with you your republican government. Try enjoy a "reality" of an economy that gives more to the rich and nothing to the poor, an economy that spends more than 50% of national budget to prepare soldiers invading third world countries and kill children, an economy that supports gun-makers selling assault weapons so that kids can blow each others' head off, an economy that consumes more than two thirds of the world resources to produce morons like you and an economy that is devastatingly run that more jobs are being lost everyday than they are being created. If getting a blowjob from an intern is an example of how bad things were with Clinton, I'd take that anyday than a moron who sits in the White House, running the country's economy to ruins. Oh, did I tell you how this moron did not deserve to be in the White House in the first place?
Posted by: Canoe Driver at April 15, 2003 03:19 PMSieg heil, Bush!
He won with a putsch.
9-1-1 was his Reichstag fire.
With his blitzkrieg, the death toll is higher.
You got the wrong fellow for your neo-Hitler, pally.
Posted by: Mike at April 15, 2003 03:38 PMCanoe Driver,
I feel sorry for you. I'm sure in that delusional
world of yours you believe those things. Nothing to the poor HA-HA. Gosh then who are all those welfare checks that my tax money pays for going to. I can't even begin to tell you the Thousands of kids that are on government free lunch programs in my School district alone. Oh there is plenty of my money going to the poor.
And personaly I'm thankful we have such a great military. Let me ask you this Do you believe the USA would be this great if we never had a military? Heck the United States wouldn't even be the United States if it were not for the people fighting for the belief of freedom. Sure our country makes mistakes, But let me ask you this, what country do you believe has a better system?
Oh yea If you think that Clinton getting the Blowjob from his intern was the only thing he did wrong. ha-ha-ha, Thats a good one.
I can't beleive this quote from the story:
"But like Hitler, Saddam became the target of a U.S.-led war"
What history book shows that WWII was a US led effort?? Holly fuck, the US didn't even enter the war for a couple of years, and only then because of Pearl Harbour. Way to re-write history.
We thought he died in 1945, but the US government repeatedly insists that he's at large all over the globe -- sometimes even appearing without a moustache! To resolve this mystery, the Jest spent its entire annual budget on eBay to assemble this oh-so-rare collection of Hitler trading cards spanning four continents and more than half a century. Click on for a barrel full o' Führers!
Playing the Hitler Card:
http://yorick.infinitejest.org:81/1/hitlercard.html
Posted by: Kinbote at April 16, 2003 01:31 PMYou know this Republican-Democrat dichotomy is lame when jingoism and blow jobs are the best they can do.
Posted by: Eric at April 16, 2003 02:33 PMCuda,
You owe your freedom more to the social struggles of the working class poor than to the American military. The unions, the anarchists, the socialists and even the communists fought and died on the streets of this country to protect our freedoms.
As soon as they gave us freedom of speech Congress passed the Sedition Act, making it illegal to question the government in a time of war (later expanded to criminalize all dissent.)
Our freedom was won by the years of bloddy struggle of the common people, not the military.
Read a book.
Posted by: madprophet at April 17, 2003 03:36 AM
this is the most fucked-up, convoluted and weirdly misinterpreted thread of comments I've seen in a while.
a. I think Georgie up there was being facetious. I hope.
b. Canoe Driver took him seriously. Mmmmkay. I'm all lefty too, kids, but sometimes you gotta lighten up and have a beer. Yo.
c. Mike wrote a poem, which was a nice non-sequitur. I like.
d. Cuda wrote in with a problem about Canoe Driver's lefty views, But he can't seem to use commas / capitalization correctly, Or write interjections very well, ha-ha-ha. He also thinks our country and military are Great. Which is Great.
e. WTF writes using British english spellings, so is prolly smarter than me, but--someone tell me--what is a Holly fuck? That sounds painful.
f. Kinbote was funny. Thanks for the link.
g. Eric's comments are always good. No problems there.
h.Madprophet made some sense too, but then had to go and bloddy holly fuck it up.
Final analysis? The 'net is rife with miscommunication; some people are dumb; and anyone is much more convincing when they can make their points intelligently and with wit. And misspellings can be forgiven--providing you are not stupid to begin with. Oh, and something about holly, but I don't wanna go there.
the end.
Posted by: michele at April 17, 2003 11:28 AM
great post michele.
Whew! I got off clean...I think. I'm glad I didn't post anything stupid...this time.
Posted by: Eric at April 17, 2003 05:29 PMYeah, I think George was being facetious too. George...Butcher...get it?
Posted by: Eric at April 17, 2003 05:31 PMnicely written michele...now were's my heineken?
Posted by: Canoe Driver at April 18, 2003 04:28 AMhere...
http://www.dack.com/booze/class.html
http://www.dack.com/booze/hangover.html
heh.
Posted by: michele at April 18, 2003 11:51 AMYes, George Butcher has provided a series of joke posts for quite a while now. George always gives at least one clue.
"Convert everybody to be Americans"? No wingnut would say this. Wingnuts do NOT want to have more swarthy-skinned people with US citizenship, and thus voting rights.
Posted by: Z at April 19, 2003 06:51 PMI thought George was full of sarcasm also, but it was so incredibly true, it made my day.
Posted by: Carl at April 20, 2003 07:51 PM
