So, what do you do if you’re the GOP heading into a midterm election cycle with corruption scandals hovering over your head, a deteriorating war on your hands, and an inconveniently timed Hurricane Katrina anniversary to look out for?

Easy.

You trot out the Hitler references. From the Washington Post:

Speaking to several thousand veterans at the American Legion’s national convention, Rumsfeld recited what he called the lessons of history, including the failure to confront Hitler in the 1930s. He quoted Winston Churchill as observing that trying to accommodate Hitler was “a bit like feeding a crocodile, hoping it would eat you last.” “I recount this history because once again we face similar challenges in efforts to confront the rising threat of a new type of fascism,” he said.

I assume this implies that the Bush Administration has a firm grasp on the lessons of History. I guess they slept through the lesson on Vietnam.

This is a wonderful game they play. Aside from displaying his gross misunderstanding of Fascism, Rumsfeld is primarily trying to compare the legitimate concern by people in this country over the Bush Administration’s mishandling of the War on Terror and the War in Iraq with the European appeasement of Hitler in the 1930’s, ignoring the fact that no one, anywhere, has suggested appeasing anybody. They are making it sound like liberals would love nothing more than to find Osama Bin Laden and give him a nice long back rub. I can only assume that by appeasement he is referring to their imagined idea that all liberals are anxious to pull out of Iraq immediately. True, some Liberals feel this way. Some would like to see an increased UN role in the conflict. Some would like us to stay the course but totally change our strategy. Some would like to see Iraq divided into a loose confederation comprising three separate Shite, Sunni, and Kurdish states. Some would like to see a measured pull out over a long period of time. People have all kinds of ideas. The only thing all of us can agree on is that we need to have some kind of rational debate about the issue, which in the age of Bush apparently equals the wholesale appeasement of evil. This is more of the same, “dissent=treason” crap they’ve been trying to sell since it became politically viable to try to do so in the wake of 9-11.

The only difference is that now it’s the only trick they have left. Nobody falls for anything else anymore.

Here is a news flash, which might come as a shock to some Republicans:

THIS IS NOT WORLD WAR II

Sorry. But its true. Our grapple with Islamic Terrorism is not analogous to the rise of Fascism and Nazism during the Second World War. Rumsfeld has compared both al Zarqawi and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to Hitler. He LOVES this Hitler thing. Name dropping WWII and Hitler gets a reaction out of people, one Republicans desperately need to capitalise on as more and more people stop buying their bullshit. I think the constant comparisons of one trivial political leader after another to Adolf Hitler minimises the horrors of World War II, but that’s just my opinion.

The threats posed by networked global terrorism are very real, and very serious, and need to be considered as the major challenge facing our nation at this point in the 21st century. EVERYONE agrees on that, despite what Bush and Rumsfeld and the rest of the peanut gallery would have you believe. Even if you want to accept the dubious comparison that these Anti-American actors are “The New Nazis”, does that necessarily imply that Bush and his lap dogs should be trusted to manage this threat? I don’t think they’ve established any aptitude for fighting wars or stopping the spread of terrorism. All evidence points to the contrary. Afghanistan is treading water, Iraq could collapse into Civil war at any moment, as they themselves will be quick to tell you, terrorists are still able to attack inside the United states at any moment. It appears that the only thing they are good at is TALKING about terrorism. The only people they are EFFECTIVE in fighting are Democrats. I think its time we were allowed to have a substantive debate in this country without having to worry about being called Nazi sympathisers by Republicans. They should be ashamed of themselves. ESPECIALLY Donald Rumsfeld, whose gross and complete incompetence has left Iraq in the mess its in right now. I say its time to cut the rhetoric and get down to solving some of these problems, and if they aren’t willing to do it, then I know a few people who are.