However, he misses the true analogy by a long shot.
Rumsfeld says that leaving Iraq would be akin to Chamberlain’s appeasement of Hitler before the start of World War II.
In fact, Chamberlain's action prevented an early repulsion of Hitler's invasion of eastern Europe. The anti-Bush movement intends to undo an invasion of Iraq. The goals of Chamberlain and of the anti-Bush movements are exactly the opposite. Chamberlain allowed illegal invasions to take place. The anti-Bush movement wants to shut an illegal occupation down.
But let's look at some analogies where events from World War II more closely mirror our current entanglement.
- Invasion
- Hitler rolled the tanks into first Austria, then Czechoslovakia and Poland, etc. These were unprovoked attacks intended to remove existing governments and replace them with authorities under Hitler’s control.
- Bush rolled the tanks into Iraq. These were unprovoked attacks intended to remove existing governments and replace them with authorities under Bush's control.
- Occupation
- In France, despite the cooperation of the "Vichy" government, the Germans continued to meet with civil resistance from the French population, which they struggled to suppress throughout the occupation.
- In Iraq, despite the cooperation of the "democratically elected" government, the US continues to meet with civil resistance from the Iraqi population, which they have struggled to suppress throughout the occupation.
- Conquest
- Hitler’s war planners were successful in the first stages of regional conquest. When they succeeded in invading Austria, they continued with an invasion of Czechoslovakia. When they succeeded in invading Czechoslovakia, they continued with an invasion of Poland. And so forth.
- Bush's war planners have failed in their first stages of regional conquest. Had they succeeded in subduing Iraq, they might well have proceeded to invade Syria, Iran…who knows. Had Rumsfeld and Cheney been as good at war planning as Goering, Hess and the Nazis, we might be witnessing an American blitzkrieg through the Middle East.
- Retribution
- In the end, the Germans were forced to leave France, where the French remained and retook control of their country.
- The fate of the American occupation of Iraq is yet to be realized. However, it is a fairly safe assumption that at some point American forces will be withdrawn and Iraqis will retake control of Iraq.
At the end of World War II, Nuremberg, Germany hosted a series of trials during which the top surviving German Nazi officials were tried and largely convicted of war crimes. The foundation of those convictions rested on the fact that it is a violation of international law to initiate a war of aggression without provocation. Most of the convicted Nazi conspirators were sentenced to death and hung.
Bush and his close advisors have done and enormous amount of damage to the reputation of the United States on the world stage. To use comic book analogies, after World War II, America was seen as the Superman of the world. Now we are seen as the Darth Vader of the world. This damage will take generations to undo.
One approach to begin to undo this damage would be to sign the treaty (as has most of the rest of the developed world) that created the International Criminal Court. We could then hand Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld over for trial. If they are tried according to Nuremberg rules, they might well be sentenced to death. Seeing those three hung might rise to the level of apology that the US must be willing to make in order to demonstrate that this period has been an anomaly in our history and does not represent the longstanding will of the American people, nor does it represent our view of our place in the world community. |