Maybe - suppose they gave a war and nobody came?

Trouble is the dictators always turn up. People from the US are always quick to sneer at the appeasement of Hitler, but given the way WW1 had devestated Europe only 20 years before, there was very little stomach for fighting for what Chamberlain called “A small country far away”.

Fungus doesn’t grow very well in sunlight, and dictators are not inevitable if the environment is not hospitable to them.  If people really knew, maybe they’d look a little harder for ways to head off the dictators while they are still starving artists.  By the time Chamberlain came along, it was too late.

The Weimar Republic was one of the set topics in history when I was a teen.  The teaching then (in the 80’s) was that the far right came to power with the support of the German establishment, who were anxious to keep the real threat of a left wing revolution out of Germany.

Germany had a real kicking in the peace treaty terms, and along comes a man who presses all the right nationalistic buttons, has massive popular support, and has found minorities to feed the frenzy off. Who inside Germany would say No? Who with a voice in German politics could say no?  It’s a HUMAN, not a German trait- nationalists and racists take hold anywhere where the population can be taught to fear.  Look at the public reaction to the Neo-Cons saying ‘11/9- blame Iraq’. Massive support, anyone dissenting seen as some sort of traitor.  I’ve seen anti war people on this board laugh at the French for um, being anti war.  They laugh at the “Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys”, a term coined because of their refusal to join Bush. (I thik LJ may have been a culprit here).

They laugh at the “Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys”, a term coined because of their refusal to join Bush.

It’s actually originally from The Simpsons. I remember watching that episode when it first aired and laughing my ass off at the line (because it was delivered so effectively by a disgruntled Scotsman). It’s unfortunate that what was once a genuinely funny line was coopted by the forces of bigotry.

I sometimes use that phrase to refer to the French, but it is always in jest.  It is a parody of the “freedom fries” super-patriot mentality.

You don’t have to hang out on conservative blogs much to know how much they hate the French for not jumping on the Iraq bandwagon.

PAPAL EDICT NUMBER ‘IV’

Fred Phelps to spend eternity being sodomised by Osama Bin Laden, while Hillary Clinton urinates on him.

Sounds like poetic justice. You’ve just got yourself a convert, LH! 

Of course, the whipped cream on top of the pie would be Fred eternally getting it from Big Gay Al.

You’ve just got yourself a convert, LH!

I’m a bit upset it took you so long, so I’m going to have to impose strict instructions on you.

Be Excellent to One Another

Do you think you can do that my child?

Be Excellent to One Another

Do you think you can do that my child?

Oh, with most people I think I can manage.

Papal Edict IV.v
Sadie to be excellent to me

DoF: Given the level of grief at every western soldier that dies in modern conflicts, I sometimes wonder if the press/web etc had existed like this in the ‘30s and ‘40s would the US and UK been able to fight the Axis?

I think there’s a difference between a country doing expansionist stuff (Germany - in retaliation/response to the draconian conditions set by the Treaty of Versailles) and the carryings on of a 2nd rate hit-man US used to support - it has a unique stench about it when you add in the Big Oil.

suppose they gave a war and nobody came?

That’d make a good title of a book.
Sitting on the side of the hill overlooking The Swamp, smoking dope at night and getting ripped and relaxed in America’s last major debacle, there was the joke about a young soldier who didn’t want to fight anymore being asked by the Sergeant: What if everyone thought like you?
Yeah, man, there’d be no war; just a buncha blokes sitting on the side of the hill overlooking The Swamp, smoking dope at night and getting ripped and relaxed ...
Alright, it wasn’t very funny - you had to be there. It still makes me grin though.

DoF, I realise I’m an innocent idealist but we don’t trust what politicians tell us because they lie - THAT’s the problem.
If you can’t tell me something cos of National Security, FINE; just don’t fucking lie to me.
And THAT’s why the current debacle has such a bad taste.
Enough of us know it was never about saving people from an evil dictator - it’s only about BIG OIL.
Of course the Fourth Estate has a lot to answer for; they were complicit in the lies either by design or stupid.

What if everyone thought like you?

Yossarian: Then I’d be a fool to do it.

Its a hell of a catch…

Its a hell of a catch…

That Catch22.