JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: A BIT MORE ABOUT HITLER'S FEVERISH OBSESSION, THE INVASION OF RUSSIA - AMERICA'S SAD RECORD SINCE THE END OF WWII - ITS OWN BLOODY GLOBAL EMPIRE AND SUPPORT FOR MANY TYRANTS JUST SO LONG AS THEY FOLLOW AMERICAN POLICY - BRIEF NOTE ON THE ADMIRATION OF HITLER BY BRITISH ROYALS AND ARISTOCRATS

John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY PHILIP GIRALDI
_______________________

Response to a comment saying, "Hitler violated every treaty and obligation imposed on Germany. He invaded neighbors as well. He was determined to launch a global war because no one enforced anything against him until the final moment. The idea that you can just ignore everything up until the eve of WW2 is insane.”


That's not quite accurate. And that last generalization about ignoring everything is facile and does not reflect history. Hitler was never ignored. He was misjudged, and the political currents in Europe, just years after the ghastly horror of WWI and with the Great Depression, were against being too strict in enforcement of treaty details. There was a failure of statesmanship.

And please, the greatest truth ever written about history was from Heraclitus, “You cannot step into the same river twice, for other waters are continually flowing on." Not learning from the past and being condemned to repeat it has become one our society’s most tired clichés.

It has been used to defend some terrible crimes and blunders, especially by America’s establishment as it indeed sent its own armies marching across the globe to oppress others. The truth is you must carefully assess each situation which arises because each of them is, in some way or another, genuinely new.

Please note that the United States itself has killed something on the order of 8 to 20 million people – estimates vary, but it has been a very bloody record - in its colonial wars, coups, and incursions since WWII. And often its leaders at the time cited George Santayana’s “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.”

The US also has supported many truly brutal governments in other countries, just so long as they supported American policy.

It’s a very long list, and each nation on it represents many atrocities.

Here’s just part of it: Egypt’s Mubarak, Saudi Arabia, Argentina’s junta, Peru’s junta, Chile’s military dictatorship, Iran’s Shah, the Philippines’ Marcos, Indonesia’s Suharto, South Vietnam’s dictators, South Africa’s Nationalists, the dictatorship in South Korea for many years after WWII, Israel’s wars and oppression, the crooked PRI party governing Mexico for many decades, Cuba’s Batista, Iraq’s Saddam for many years, and Romania’s Ceauşescu.

Anyway, it is largely irrelevant what most Americans think of these matters. The policies of war and empire are decided completely by the power establishment. Of course, allied major news sources work overtime to manufacture public support - all power establishments anywhere preferring to be liked and accepted - but America is not a democracy, not at all, and what the bulk of its people think about such matters really does not count.

Global war was not Hitler's aim. Although, had he succeeded in his primary aim, years later, that result might well have followed.

Since the early 1920s, Hitler’s dominating, fierce vision, the purpose he felt he was on earth to achieve - he did definitely have a bit of a “messiah complex” - was the conquest of Russia.

He wanted to turn the best lands in Russia into part of Germany, emulating America's success in its march West. Big resources and markets mattered, and he felt Germany’s size crippled her potential.

He tried convincing European leaders at various points to allow him the freedom to get rid of something they hated, the Soviet Union.

But largely they would not. Such a huge Germany represented a great future threat. And that's besides the barbaric visions he had for Russia, turning much of the population into slaves and allowing the rest to perish while repopulating it with acceptably Germanic types. Hitler’s nightmare vision was on a grand scale. He was a fan, after all, of Wagnerian opera.

Most of the European war he fought resulted from European leaders not agreeing to accommodate his drive to destroy Russia, effectively blocking him in his “anointed” purpose. In a few smaller instances, he was “reclaiming” what he regarded as German. Poland, whose invasion finally triggered the war, represented a huge wall in front of the Soviet Union to be removed, and a dirty deal with the Soviets to split it offered some assurance to Stalin.

In his build-up for what he saw as his great task, he did break treaty after treaty, reoccupying the Rhineland, rearming, etc.

Much of his armament work was concealed, but the truth is, much of his mid-1930s efforts were winked at by some European leaders.

Many felt the Versailles Treaty had been too hard on Germany and quietly wished for it to rejoin the historic club of major European nations.

Many misunderstood his fanaticism because Hitler was perfectly capable of presenting himself as gracious, charming, and thoughtful. That appearance fooled many, including the Royals in Britain.

Strong admiration for Hitler, on the part of both “the woman he loved” and himself, was the real reason for the forced abdication of Edward VIII. There are many photos of them both with stars in their eyes around Hitler. Many British aristocrats were in the same fan club.