Nazis, Nazis, Nazis: Obama draws parallels between Wallenberg, Syria

[cali]

President Barack Obama is drawing parallels between the actions of a Swedish diplomat who saved Jews during the Holocaust and the action he wants the world to take to help Syria's people.

On his first presidential visit to Sweden, Obama said Raoul Wallenberg's actions are a reminder "of our power not simply to bear witness, but also to act."

Obama is trying to rally the world to retaliate against Syrian President Bashar Assad (bah-SHAR' AH'-sahd) for his alleged use of deadly gases against his people in the country's civil war.

Obama spoke Wednesday after visiting the Great Synagogue of Stockholm and examining artifacts related to Wallenberg.

Wallenberg is credited with saving at least 20,000 Jews during the Holocaust. He disappeared after his arrest by Soviet forces in 1945.

http://www.chron.com/news/politics/article/Obama-draws-parallels-between-Wallenberg-Syria-4785873.php

[NuclearDem]

1. HITLER HITLER HITLER

And that's why we must bomb Syria.

Any questions?

[ProSense]

4. Such historical references can only

be used to scare people about the NSA.

To those who have been suggesting "We have nothing to fear, if we have nothing to hide."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023223505

I mean, months of Goebbels/Nazi references are appropriate for spying, but don't bring up any reference if the topic is a chemical attack.

[NuclearDem]

6. .

[cali]

7. I don't think they're appropriate there either. That doesn't make this

use any more admirable.

Actually, it's less admirable as it's the U.S. President and members of his administration engaging in propaganda designed to gin up support for attacking syria any way they can. DU members hardly have the platform or the responsibility to use measured speech that those in positions of power have.

[ProSense]

17. Please,

"Actually, it's less admirable as it's the U.S. President and members of his administration engaging in propaganda designed to gin up support for attacking syria any way they can. DU members hardly have the platform or the responsibility to use measured speech that those in positions of power have."

...it's pure hypocrisy, and it's not just DUers. These references have been thrown around by many, including in editorial cartoons, etc.

Alan Grayson: IT'S NOT OKAY WITH ME - "We are not North Koreans. & We don’t live in Nazi Germany."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023028119

Pure hypocrisy
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023587193#post3

[Cali_Democrat]

11. Good point

Funny how Nazi references are okay when discussing government agencies like the NSA, but not for chemical attacks which are indeed war crimes.

[woo me with science]

14. It's useful when the defenders of corporate warmongering

also make it clear in their posts that they are the very same people who relentlessly defend the US corporate surveillance state and the criminalization of whistleblowing and investigative journalism.

It's useful to keep all those positions on the same page, so people can see the patterns.

[cali]

15. Nope they're not OK in my book and I've never used them in reference to the NSA.

In fact, I don't use them period. they're stupid and manipulative and hysterical.

As I wrote the OP and I've never used the Nazi crap to make a point about the NSA, the comment is bullshit

[Cali_Democrat]

19. I don't care about your book

When people were comparing the NSA to Nazis, I don't recall you objecting. I'm sure deep down you appreciated such comparisons even though you might say otherwise now.

[cali]

20. I have objected, dear. not every time, but I've objected.

and man, could you be any more disingenuous? You're sure that I approve even though I've not only never expressed that but I've called it crap?

honesty isn't remotely something the likes of YOU are on familiar terms with. lame, hon.

[Cali_Democrat]

21. "I have objected"

Sure you have, my dear.

Sure you have.

[Bluenorthwest]

24. I don't recall seeing NSA equated to Nazis, but to the Stassi which is more accurate.

Or to the Soviet KGB. Nazis were not famous for spying and wiretapping. Stassi and KGB and NSA are.
I think you are making this shit up or you'd have links.

[ProSense]

18. Exactly. n/t

[FarCenter]

2. Sweden maintained neutrality during World War II -- they did not bomb Germany.

[atreides1]

3. Really?

I work at a place where Mr. Wallenberg is greatly revered...I haven't seen or read anything about him using cruise missiles...but maybe I missed something!

Raoul Wallenberg used his position to save lives and he did it without killing...President Obama isn't doing this to save lives as much as he's doing it to punish the Syrian government(a personal belief)!

Wallenberg wasn't interested in punishing anyone...

[Nuclear Unicorn]

5. Repeat an analogy often enough and it will be believed.

[jsr]

8. bah-SHAR' AH'-sahd is Hitler. Bomb him NOW!

[no_hypocrisy]

9. Ironic that Obama cites Jews and Nazis as this country did dick to help them

when it could have.

This country has ignored many genocides: Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Cambodia, Rwanda, the Spanish Civil War (Franco), the rout of Jews from France, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Germany, Austria during WWII.

Genocide was one of the main reasons that the U.N. was created, not solely to prevent future wars.

[oberliner]

10. He makes no mention of Syria or of Nazis

This OP is BS.

[cali]

12. oh please. the reference was clearly to the Nazi persecution of Jews and

you know it. What the hell do you think he was referencing?

The administration has been using Nazi references to sell this action.

[oberliner]

23. Of course that was the reference

But it was in no way linked to anything to do with Syria.

Here is the full text of his remarks:

http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/texttrans/2013/09/20130904282188.html#axzz2dwxpfI3r

Please show me where he talked about Syria or compared anyone to Nazis.

[polichick]

13. He also talked about live vs dead 3 & 4-years olds.

[bullwinkle428]

16. Here's the thing. We don't get to compare other countries to Nazi Germany

when we USED THEM to do our fucking dirty work for years!

"After Sept. 11, 2001, the CIA launched a program of “extraordinary rendition” to handle terrorism suspects. The agency’s problem, as it saw it, was that it wanted to detain and interrogate foreign suspects without bringing them to the United States or charging them with any crimes. Their solution was to secretly move a suspect to another country. Sometimes that meant a secret CIA prison in places such as Thailand or Romania, where the CIA would interrogate him. Sometimes it meant handing him over to a sympathetic government, some of them quite nasty, to conduct its own “interrogation.”

I was most curious about the involvement of two governments that are very much adversaries of the United States: those of Iran and Syria. It’s clear that, in both cases, it was an enemy-of-my-enemy calculus. Iran and Syria are both enemies of al-Qaeda and have struggled against Sunni Islamist extremism (Syria’s government is secular, Iran’s is Shia).

The section on Syria is disturbing. That government’s record of horrific abuses has spilled out into the open since the uprising of 2011 became a civil war, with more Syrians subjected to – and speaking out about – a torture regime that sounds as if it were from another century. According to a 2005 article by the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer, quoted in the report, Syria was one of the “most common destinations for rendered suspects.” Government forces, according to the report, held some U.S.-provided detainees in a prison known as “The Grave” for its coffin-sized cells and subjected them to “torture involving a chair frame used to stretch the spine (the ‘German chair’) and beatings.”"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/02/05/a-staggering-map-of-the-54-countries-that-reportedly-participated-in-the-cias-rendition-program/

[oberliner]

25. At no time in these remarks does Obama compare any country to Nazi Germany

You can read the full text of his remarks here:

http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/texttrans/2013/09/20130904282188.html#axzz2dwxpfI3r

[Coyotl]

22. The Nazis attack a sovereign nation. Syria is a sovereign nation.

Let's NOT mimic Hitler and the Nazis by attacking Syria.