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Provocative Questions

Provocative Questions

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Dennis Rahkonen (‘The Republican Wile E. Coyote‘, 6-27-05) thinks that Durbin’s apology was unwise. In his view, we should perhaps be making more actual historical comparisions between this administration and that of Hitler’s Germany. Here are some starter questions for eager researchers…

Did German motorists have “Support Our Troops” ribbons on their Volkswagens in 1943?

Did conservatives loyal to Hitler pooh-pooh reports of Jews being abused in concentration camps in the same way neocon Bush backers blithely dismiss documentation by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and even the FBI that Muslims are being routinely abused at U.S. detention centers in Afghanistan, Iraq and Cuba?

Did they actually believe the contrived pretext for the Wehrmacht’s assault on Poland? (Nazi provocateurs dressed in Polish military uniforms “attacked” German border posts and a German radio station.)

Was there a German entertainer like Toby Keith who rallied backing for the official cause with jingoistic, xenophobic phonograph recordings?

When news of Guernica, Lidice and the Warsaw Ghetto reached the German masses, were they any less propagandized about what really happened there then we are about Fallujah?

Was the German press as craven in refusing to criticize Hitler’s purpose as the American media are in failing to seriously challenge George Bush?

Finally, will history and humankind accord his despicable war for oil and hegemony any kinder status than they have for the crimes of the Third Reich?

A note about our press

A note about our press

Comments 2 comments

I’ts not so much that we have outright censorship. The White House sends out press releases. It doesn’t have a whole lot of interviewing. And it they don’t like what you say, they cut off all access.

Then, it’s a matter of money. Advertisers, network owners, and so on.

But you know, last night an old girlfriend was in town. As the three of us munched down our dinner in the kitchen, my hubby John started telling us about his last trip to Paris and all the stories that were reported there… and reported very differently. Ok, some of you out there have decided to hate France – why, I’m not sure. We wouldn’t even have a democracy here without them.

He said that when he was there, the Abu Graib story was hitting the world news. He picked up LeMonde one day (the more conservative of the two major French newspapers) and it was full of testimony from prisoners that had been there.

Do you recall reading a whole lot of testimony from the people who were actually there? I don’t – maybe I just missed it.

Just one example, but there were others. It is worth checking websites and alternative news sources. Out media just isn’t what it used to (at least aim to) be.