Pakistan, the Taliban, and Hitler’s Sneaky Little Game
The recent Taliban developments in Pakistan’s Swat Valley sound a lot like what happened when another oppressive regime tried to bargain with another country, only to crack the door to its own downfall.
Clever little Hitler, aware of Czechoslovakia’s well-fortified border, came up with his own ingenious solution to break inside. Take up the Sudeten German cause. The Sudeten Germans — a small group between Czechoslovakia and Germany — were already suffering the Depression-era blues and were particularly susceptible to extremist views. It was the perfect ruse.
The gradual escalation of the Czech-Sudeten confrontation resulted in forcing the leader of the Sudeten-German Party, Konrad Henlein, into the arms of Adolf Hitler, who promised to provide an international sounding board for the Sudeten case. Hitler, of course, welcomed the opportunity and did not hesitate to misuse the principle of self-determination as a weapon to further his own Lebensraum policy. The Sudetenland was relegated to Germany in October 1938. The remaining parts of Czechoslovakia were invaded and annexed by Germany in March 1939.
Examining what we already know about Hitler’s totalitarian regime, we are met with the Taliban, a poverty-stricken community of power-hungry men seeking salvation in the form of political autonomy and God. Their scapegoats? Jews, women, non-Muslims, moderate Muslims, and anyone who disagrees with them.
In Hitler’s case, the easily manipulated international powers were myopic, if not completely blind. The Sudeten Germans were humbly asking for freedom, or at least to be under Germany’s control. The question: Make vulnerable a fortified mountainous boundary to an aggressive country hell-bent on war or give a small, relatively unknown people a greater sense of Germanic identity? The answer was simple. After all, it was a carefully constructed marketing campaign.
Hitler didn’t want to give the Sudeten Germans self-determination, just as the Taliban doesn’t want to give the Muslim men and women in Afghanistan and Pakistan the chance to live out a peaceful Islamic life. The result of international appeasement was that the Czechs were left with an unfortified border and when the Germans lost the war, the Sudeten Germans were also forced out of the very land they had inhabited for centuries. In short, they lost.
Which brings us to the Taliban. Shouldn’t these dusty nomadic fighters carrying rusted out Kalashnikovs and sporting matted beards straight out of the Middle Ages be a dark memory by now? Instead, they’re riding high in a government-condoned safe zone inside nuclear-packed, unpredictable Pakistan. Unlike Germany, which kept its concentration camps under wraps (much like the Taliban keeps its women), we’re all well aware of the Taliban’s horrific enslavement and assassinations of women. Yet these gun-toting rebels have a fair amount of legitimacy close to Islamabad.
What more do they need to do? Open some concentration camps? Or perhaps they need to kill more men. Maybe then more countries will rally together to finally stop this gruesome regime.
Good history lesson. The Sudeten Germans were fools. Yes, Hitler also tried a similar trick on Friesland’s population in the Netherlands, but it didn’t work. (My grandpa never did like their pagan uniforms.)
Now is the time to bring back the Civil Rights slogan: Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. If it’s not true now, it never has been.
Learn from history friends.We don’t it to happen like Hitler’s plan for the world.
Taliban the gift that keeps on giving
http://www.flurl.com/video/38192563_grafic_beheading_by_taliban.htm
In many respect, Adolph Hitler was the Jesse Jackson of his era. He relentlessly employed the victim card. When caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar—he would merely respond that he was only looking out for the unfairly besieged Germans. How could anyone not trust the peaceful Fuhrer who hated war because he had seen it first hand during WWII? Can’t we all get along? After all, didn’t John Maynard Keynes also say that the Germans were treated unfairly after the Great War? Poor Adolph, he’s only doing the best that he can. Let’s cut him some slack and make sure the world remains a peaceful place. And that damn Winston Churchill needs to keep his mouth shut. The guy drinks too much and is something of a warmonger. Furthermore, do we really want to see our men die on behalf of the Jews? They are the ones behind all this tension.
I strongly recommend the DVD, “Imaginary witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust” directed by Daniel Anker. It shows how the Nazis diabolically accused anyone criticizing their regime of anti-German bigotry! The Hollywood bosses were so intimidated that they shied away from producing Anti-Nazi movies previous to America’s involvement in the war. Even Jewish filmmakers refused to make films dealing with the persecution of Jews in Germany. Jimmy Stewart’s 1940 anti-Nazi film, “The Mortal Storm” never once uttered the word Jew. This movie is also near impossible to find. The same thing is happening today regarding the making of movies dealing with Islamic nihilism. Alas, nothing has really changed.
ANTI-WAR CANDIDATE OBAMA LIVES UP TO BILLING
Doctrine comes first, national security somewhere thereafter.
http://greensrealworld.blogspot.com/2009/05/iraq-obama-takes-his-eye-off-ball.html
lets empty out our prisons and let them establish themselves in Pakistan (Swat valley). give them 2 years of support, and get the thugs to provide security and the white collar criminals to run the economy. you got to have some advisors and we can establish democracy in the middle east. look at all the money we will save on maintenance for the prison systems. we can call it New America.
“The gradual escalation of the Czech-Sudeten confrontation resulted in forcing the leader of the Sudeten-German Party, Konrad Henlein, into the arms of Adolf Hitler…”
The Sudeten Germans didn’t have to be forced. They joyfully jumped into Hitler’s arms. Their enthusiastic collaboration with the Nazis resulted in their total expulsion from Western Czechoslovakia at the end of World War II, with the full consent of the world’s governments.
When did Shariah law stand for “Noble Islamic Laws”? Are you talking about 1000 years ago, before the Gate of Itjihad closed? Because since then, Shariah law has stood for institutionalized slavery. It has always supported the system of Dhimmitude, it has always supported punishments such as death for apostasy and cutting off the hands of thieves. It has always supported stoning adulturers and the discrimination of women. You have swallowed the BS apologist lines. Where did you get your info, Karen Armstrong, John Esposito and Dinesh D’souza?
The author really hit the nail on the head. I’ve been thinking about this Nazi/Taliban analogy for awhile. It’s really scary to think that the Taliban seems to be moving slowly but steadily to Islamabad and Lahore. I was thinking about the absurdity of the Taliban attitude towards girls and women recently when I read an article in the Times of London about this 2-year old girl who lives in London with her white mother and (looked like, not sure) Pakistani father. This little girl has one of the highest IQs ever recorded-she’s studying higher math now, and she reads like a champ. I thought, oh, my goodness, if this brilliant little girl lived in the Swat Valley, she wouldn’t even be allowed to go to school! Crazy.
Imagine how these Liberals would have reacted against Bush with todays news?: 100 collateral deaths due to US bombing in Afghanistan; 400 million dollars more to be sent to Afghanistan; more Americans troops to be sent to Afghanistan.
Being in the White House the man Liberals and the partial Press wanted it to be, they cease to play the fifth column role they played, during Bush’s term in office for now with their man In -this turns into the “right war”.