Week 9

In response to this.

This week, Gil starts off with this poll, which was conducted with about 1,006 adults nationwide:

http://www.pollingreport.com/iraq.htm

(CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll. June 16-19, 2005. Margin of Error + or - 3)

The question posed was "Do you favor or oppose the U.S. war with Iraq?"

Contrary to what Gil states, this question is not phrased in such a way that you can answer with as a "yes" or "no" response.

39% responded that they "favor" the war. 59% responded that they "oppose" the war. And 2% were "unsure".

First of all, this poll is of 1,006 people. How can one reach the conclusion that this single poll accurately reflects the opinion of the entire American population? That's a stretch of the imagination, to say the least!

Next, Gil states "And perhaps there are some who now believe we were misled into war. It is clear, from the Downing Street Memos, that the administration believed Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction."

I think Gil might have been mixed up with the many prominent Democrats that believed this?

Did the Downing Street Memos really say that the American administration believed Saddam had WMDs?

No, it expressed concern by the British that Saddam would use WMDs (as he had before on his own people and in the Iran/Iraq war).

It says the regime was "producing the WMD" (not necessarily that they "had" them).

It says Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD.

Note that it says there was a "conjuntion" between terrorism and WMD. Not Iraq "having" WMD -- but rather, the possibility of terrorists having them.

Next, Gil refers to the Dolchstoßlegende, the German "dagger-blow legend" that led to the rise of Hitler.

In this legend, republican politicians signed a peace treaty ending WWI.

Many German nationalists and commanders considered this a "stab in the back" to nationalism.

They referred to the republican treaty signers as the "November criminals".

This is ironic on so many levels when you think about this in relation to modern day America.

The November criminals were considered to have great wealth and influence.

(The Republicans are considered to have great wealth and influence. Look on the right panel on a past DNC website)

Rather than finding fault amongst themselves, the German commanders blamed the November criminals for the deaths of 1,770,000 German soldiers and 760,000 German civilians, devastated the economy, and brought losses in both territory and national sovereignty.

(Rather than finding fault amongst themselves, the Democrats blamed Republicans for Iraq War deaths and a recessed economy.)

These "November criminals", nationalists alleged, had "stabbed them in the back" on the "home front," by either criticizing the cause of German nationalism, or by simply not being zealous-enough supporters of it.

(Democrats want to "take back their country").

Gil, I think you're onto something there?

Ok, just kidding.

In reality, Gil was trying to say modern day Republicans (such as Rush Limbaugh) are accusing Democrats of being November criminals -- or "unpatriotic".

Oh wait, then Gil states "But we haven’t been stabbed in the back. In believing that jingoism and wishful thinking amounted to effective policy, we did this to ourselves."

Oh right...the title. I almost forgot.

In actuality, Republicans weren't using German propaganda that in the past led to the rise of Hitler?

Thanks for clearing that up, Gil. It would be twisted and wrong to compare Republicans to Nazis, especially in relation to Dolchstosslegende. After all, we are a far cry from 1,770,000 dead soldiers and 760,000 dead civilians, a devastated economy, and losses in both territory and national sovereignty.