Comments on: Bounty On Bush: Are Americans Still In Denial About The Iraq War?

By: Get A Trip

Get A Trip — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 12:18:52 +0000

Is Dr. Jurgen for real. Not Going To Happen. Then again, that’s why he can boldly offer a million bucks up. His offer is therefore meaningless. If people knew how important it is for us to have bases in the Middle East then they would not question why we are there. They might not like to hear the truth, but as an American I support our troops in Iraq. We need to be there.

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By: Ginger, American in Italy

Ginger, American in Italy — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 11:55:59 +0000

Well I agree with Todenhofer.
We impeach a president for a 3 minute zipper weakness which did absolutely no harm to anyone… and yet turn a blind eye to cronyism, greed, ignoring of the Geneva convention, graft, murder and maiming of thousands in the name of ‘Democracy’ which was the alternative word for…. crude oil. Doesn’t anyone else see something decidedly very wrong with this picture??? Have 8 years of a sick administration made us so jaded and blase’…that we can’t grasp the difference in the offense-s?
I personally am still disgusted…. ohh and by the way, where the hell IS Bin Laden?

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By: Jacob Bielanski

Jacob Bielanski — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 13:52:56 +0000

I’m not sure if I agree with Todenhofer’s “Hitler” comparison, but his book (free, online) “Why Do You Kill, Zaid” is really fascinating.

Frankly, I’ve been hoping that Bush would be court martial’d and shot for his other abomination: No Child Left Behind.

Andrew brings up a good point though–the same pretenses under which we should hang Bush (for the Iraq war) apply even MORE SO to going in, arresting and hanging Saddam Hussein (which, if memory serves, we did). Sure, if we had never gone there, we could’ve maintained a moral high ground (something we desperately need these days), but how many dead and starving would there be on Saddam’s hands?

Lets not forget, the U.N. didn’t impose those sanctions for the hell of it.

Of course, under this reasoning, we should also have some ACUs in Darfur…South Ossetia….North Korea…Myanmar…etc., etc.

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By: Carlo Alcos

Carlo Alcos — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 13:31:25 +0000

Sorry…this comment wasn’t a reply to Eva, my bad,,,when I say “he” I mean Dr Jurgen Todenhofer:

I wonder if he really believes that or is just using Hitler’s name for shock value. As Andrew said, there are other people in the world who are more deserving of the comparison to Hitler.
That said, if it takes this comparison to shake people up and discuss and learn what’s really going on over there, then it’s done its purpose.

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By: Carlo Alcos

Carlo Alcos — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 13:28:59 +0000

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By: christine

christine — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 03:46:01 +0000

No, but in the 3 years following 9/11, we certainly “detained” (threw in sometimes horrific jails with no access to family or friends) and deported a whole lot of innocent Muslims or people of Middle Eastern descent that weren’t even Muslim.

And yes, I personally witnessed quite a few get harassed by police at BART stations in San Francisco, and we know how progressive SF is supposed to be.

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By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 02:45:38 +0000

“Have we become what the Germans were during WWII – at best complacent, and at worst participants?”

I think it’s important to note that Saddam was wiping out entire groups of people just because they weren’t like him. So if I had to compare someone to Hitler, I’m pretty sure I’d choose him over Bush any day.

It doesn’t justify everything Bush and his regime did, but let’s not get carried away here. We’re not gathering up Iraqis in box cars and shipping them off to Auschwitz.

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By: Julie

Julie — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 23:01:01 +0000

Agreed– the comparison doesn’t work for me, but I do think it’s worth asking whether Americans have become way too complacent about the war (not just in Iraq, but in Afghanistan, too).

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By: Christine Garvin

Christine Garvin — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:15:16 +0000

Alex, while I agree that the mainstream war coverage was all very positive toward the war for the first couple of years, the same wasn’t true for “alternative media”–local weeklies, Al Jazeera, etc. were telling it like it was from day one, actually before day one.

I remember going to a picture installation in the small (albeit very progressive) town of Arcata, CA before the US invasion of Iraq, where there were pictures of places bombed and limbless or missing-an-eye/starving children in Iraq due to both the sanctions the US had inflicted and the bombs dropped since Bush 1 and the Gulf War.

To some extent, the time that we are living in, with access to global news at our fingertips, makes us more responsible than any previous generation. Yes, there is a lot of misguided sources out there, but there is also the ability for the little person who has been directly affected to get his story out there. And it is up to us to listen.

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By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 21:37:17 +0000

While I’m still conflicted with the comparison, I do think that Americans are somewhat just as misinformed as Germans were during their era. If you look at Iraqi War media coverage during, especially, the first months of the war, the media was almost scared to cover anything opposing the war. I actually watched a video on the neglect of the media to cover the war correctly. And it only catapulted. Eventually people slowly started to become more informed as more and more information was revealed, yet just recently have bans been lifted on censorship (such as not showing coffins). But I still find that many Americans are completely ignorant of the whole situation from the start. A lot believe that only recently the situations has been messed up. While this doesn’t excuse Americans for being silent, I find that people just don’t know how they can help. Maybe if information was presented to them, they would take the opportunity to do something.

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