Now Showing on the History Channel

Watching a series about WWII, I couldn’t help but notice unintended parallels between the Nazi occupation of France & America's invasion of Iraq.  By way of analogy, Iraqi insurgents were the French Resistance & the Americans were–I’m ashamed to say–the Nazis, the fucking Nazis.  Now before anyone gets the wrong idea, I don’t mean that America is an imperialistic, totalitarian, fascist state. It’s not totalitarian--yet.  Nor do I mean to imply that then-president George Bush is like Adolf Hitler.  No matter how much Bush sucked–& he sucked at historic levels–I won’t stoop to such ridiculous comparisons. For one thing, Hitler had a moustache.*

You have to be careful about comparing people to Hitler. I took a lot of flak on Facebook when I said Angela Merkel was like Hitler. In my defense, no matter how deplorable I find her favoring, if not forcing, austerity cuts for struggling nations in the EU, all I meant was that both Merkel & Hitler have served as Chancellor of Germany & have similar moustaches. However, that’s where the likenesses end. No rational person would otherwise confuse Merkel for Hitler, who besides wanting to conquer or destroy Europe & ultimately the world with an insidiously evil plan–OK, I forgot where I was going with this.

Oh, yeah, the EU. I’d say I was surprised when the Nobel Committee awarded it the Peace Prize last year, but when you look at the list of recipients, it’s hardly a shock. Remember that Obama won one, despite the US fighting two wars, amping up its drone program & continuing to keep Gitmo open. Recently, a movement is afoot to petition the Nobel Committee to rescind Obama’s prize. I applaud the effort, but frankly there’s a better chance of the committee extending a posthumous award to Hitler, who would have ruled in peace–the saggy-assed aristocrats who hand out these things would claim–if everyone had willingly capitulated to his will.  Surely even Noam Chomsky sees the logic in that.**

Coming up next on the History Channel, a top team of parapsychologists looks into reports of a mysterious specter often spotted hitchhiking on the autobahn. Could it be the ghost of Adolf Hitler? Then leading scientists & genealogists investigate disturbing new evidence that indicates aliens from an unknown, distant planet once lived among us. Is it possible that you, without knowing it, are descended from a strange race of beings from the far reaches of outer space, just like–oh, I don’t know–Hitler?

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* I hope no one erroneously infers that I encourage or condone the killing of American troops.  As a lifelong pacifist, I wish all troops were brought home immediately.  In fact, I oppose, almost categorically, the deployment of US troops, but especially when it's done for the purposes of control & plunder.

** You have to read or scroll to nearly the end of the article to find the quote I'm alluding to here, "Everyone wants peace, even Hitler & Genghis Khan.  The question always is: On what terms?  Under whose direction?"