posted on April 4, 2003 06:15:32 AM new
If you haven't yet read this article about the political, social, and economic conditions and the corresponding events that resulted in the creation of fascism in Germany, you should. The article is long but easy to read and very important in light of the present political landscape amid world instability.
............
Reflecting on that time, The American Heritage Dictionary (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1983) left us this definition of the form of government the German democracy had become through Hitler's close alliance with the largest German corporations and his policy of using war as a tool to keep power: "fas-cism (fbsh'iz'em) n. A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism."
Today, as we face financial and political crises, it's useful to remember that the ravages of the Great Depression hit Germany and the United States alike. Through the 1930s, however, Hitler and Roosevelt chose very different courses to bring their nations back to power and prosperity.
Germany's response was to use government to empower corporations and reward the society's richest individuals, privatize much of the commons, stifle dissent, strip people of constitutional rights, and create an illusion of prosperity through continual and ever-expanding war. America passed minimum wage laws to raise the middle class, enforced anti-trust laws to diminish the power of corporations, increased taxes on corporations and the wealthiest individuals, created Social Security, and became the employer of last resort through programs to build national infrastructure, promote the arts, and replant forests.
To the extent that our Constitution is still intact, the choice is again ours.
posted on April 4, 2003 03:40:29 PM new
It *sounds like* the PNAC delusionists may be losing the battle within the Bush administration. Rove must have the results from the last private, top secret polling. Nothing certain yet, but it's looking good at the moment.
State Dept, Pentagon rift grows over post-war Iraq administration: officials
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A rift between the State Department and the Pentagon (news - web sites) that began as a squabble over humanitarian aid in Iraq (news - web sites) has turned into a bitter dispute over the immediate post-war administration of the country, senior US officials said.
While careful not to imply that the split would hamper the coalition war effort or damage the long-term goal of returning Iraq to the Iraqi people, the officials said it was complicating plans to set up a functioning interim authority quickly.
