January 8, 2007
by Steve Osborn

Adapted from a letter sent to Rep. Larsen (D-WA) on 10-12-04

Few people in government today remember World War II, but there are some lessons to be learned from it. The Bush regime is using the same tactics that brought Hitler to power and assured his control.

Hitler used fear as a weapon. As a "for instance," they found a Dutch half-wit to fire the Reichstag building. He went in and set a fire using his shirt as tinder. Meanwhile, the S.A. had entered the building and set a large number of highly fueled fire sites, ignited by time fuses. The Reichstag building burned and the next day a decree "for the Protection of the People and the State" was promulgated, suspending the seven sections of the German constitution which guaranteed individual and civil liberties. It was described as a "defensive measure against  Communist acts of violence endangering the state."

It stated that:

Restrictions on personal liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion including freedom of the press; on the rights of assembly and association; and violations of the privacy of postal, telegraphic and telephone communications and warrants for house searches, orders for confiscation as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed.

Does that sound anything like the PATRIOT ACT?

The Reich government declared it had found Communist "documents" proving that they were going to blow up and fire buildings, museums, mansions and essential plants. Women and children were to be sent in front of terrorist groups. In general, except for the government's actions, there would be a terrible civil war and blood bath.

The government announced that it would provide these "documents," but it never did.

The faction of constitutionalists that stated that they would never allow the overthrow of the constitution were virtually ignored in the Nazi controlled press. Most of them were later eliminated.

Hitler told the Junkers, who controlled over ninety percent of agriculture and industry that they would not be taxed or penalized. In return, they gave enormous sums to the Nazi propaganda machine and the party. The German Officer Corps were told that the German army could rebuild without hindrance. They supported Hitler.

Unions were quickly dissolved, retirement plans were canceled and the moneys returned to the Junkers and government to use as they saw fit. People were unemployed by the millions. Then, they were forced to work at whatever wages were offered, for as many hours as demanded, the alternative being to starve.

Finally Hitler declared that there would be no more unemployment, jobs for everyone. The problem was that you were assigned to the job with no choice. You could not protest, ask for higher wages or better working conditions, on pain of thinking it over in a concentration camp.

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The government was allowed to "disappear" those whom they suspected of treason, but in fact was anybody who spoke out against the regime in any way. The "Nacht und Nebel Erlass"-- "Night and Fog Decree" -- was to seize persons "endangering German Security," who were not to be immediately executed and make them vanish without a trace in the night and fog of the unknown in Germany. No information was to be given their families as to their fate even when, as invariably occurred, it was merely a place of burial in the Reich.

In December of 1941, General Keitel issued a directive explaining the Fuehrer's orders"

"In principle the punishment for offenses committed against the German state is the death penalty. But if these offenses are punished with imprisonment, even with hard labor for life, this will be looked upon as a sign of weakness. Efficient intimidation can only be achieved either by capital punishment or by measure by which the relatives of the criminal and the population do not know their fate....the prisoners are to be transported to Germany secretly...these measures will have a deterrent effect because

• the prisoners will vanish without leaving a trace,
• no information may be given as to their whereabouts or their fate."

I'm sorry, but this sounds a lot like what is happening to people in the US. Now we are officially allowing these people to be outsourced to countries that torture, so our hands are clean? The Constitution and the Geneva Conventions are obsolete?

C'mon, Rick, fight this fascist takeover tooth and nail. If they get away with it, the United States becomes only a name. The spirit will be dead.

Also, regarding Iraq and "terrorists." If we were invaded and occupied by a foreign government or coalition of nations, wouldn't you be doing the same thing to drive them out as the Iraqis are doing? I know there would be millions of Americans doing it, whether you called them terrorists, insurgents or whatever.

We would call ourselves patriots, and anything would go, to oust the invaders. Air attacks on downtown Stanwood and Mt. Vernon would not be killing terrorists, they would be killing Americans, for the most part trying to survive and live. The more of that that happened, the more pissed and deadly we would become. 

It isn't working!

How cynical can you get? I just scratched the surface on the history lesson, but the parallels are enormous. 

George Orwell must be spinning at high revs by now.

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Stephen M. Osborn [send him email] is a freelance writer living on Camano Island in the Pacific Northwest. He is an "Atomic Vet." (Operation Redwing, Bikini Atoll 1956, ) who has been very active working and writing for nuclear disarmament and world peace. He is a retired Fire Battalion Chief, lifelong sailor, writer, poet, philosopher, historian and former newspaper columnist.

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