PunkMaister wrote:Jedi Master Spock wrote:As a general rule, I recommend to you that nobody featured on Michael Savage's show is a "typical" liberal.
The guy that made the call is obviously a liberal no doubts about it...
And
David Duke is definitely a conservative. That doesn't mean he's a typical conservative.
To be direct, I wouldn't be so sure that the fellow making the call is actually liberal. All is not always what it seems on television and in show business. I would point you at Eminem (who is almost certainly not as homophobic as his lyrics), Stephen Colbert (who is not as clueless as the character he plays on TV), and Jerry Springer (whose guests occasionally are known to have been actors.)
What
is true is that World War II was a rather more complex problem on the ground than how pundits talk about it now. It is for the sake of pundit-like simplicity in dealing with the details of history that the so-called Godwin's Law was invented - and in the beginning, it was not wholly clear what role the United States would play in it. There were a number of realignments and betrayals in the course of human events from 1935-1945. It is difficult to imagine FDR aligning the United States with Germany; but had FDR not been president, another man might have. And I can even think of one.
Henry Ford came within a hair's breadth of launching a serious political career in the Senate in 1918. He was widely respected and a popular figure of his day and age; it is not so difficult to imagine him becoming president had the country not turned to a four-term populist. With a Senate career behind him, he would be the sort of candidate modern conservative pundits like Michael Savage love - a highly successful businessman turned politician. In fact, if I were a gambler, I would eagerly wage hard money that a poll of conservative pundits would think that FDR sticking to two terms and Henry Ford elected for two terms starting in 1936 would have been better for the country. The more the poll concentrated on the New Deal and the Great Depression, the more sharp the division would be.
And then history would come and bite them in the tail for not looking closely at the historical context. Ford and Hitler shared a great deal of mutual respect; the United States would have adopted an official stance of neutrality and
exercised neutrality in their dealings - not cutting off Japan's oil supplies (which means no Pearl Harbor attack in December 1941), trading equally with Germany and England if to either of them.
In a situation like that, it's quite unlikely that the United States would have been a significant
de facto ally (through its deep pocketbooks and large industry) of the British and French in the 1939-1941 phase, nor is it likely that the United States would've issued a declaration of war near the end of 1941. The Nazis would have had an easier time of it.
The end lesson? History is quite complex, and it's not always a good idea to roll out the Third Reich comparisons right away. Not without careful thought; the situation in North Korea is
very different from that of Germany in the 1930s. China would steamroll them if they tried anything quite that ambitious. What we're worried about primarily is them using out of desperation, or selling, a nuclear weapon. Secondarily, we worry a little that if North Korea decides to start marching, it will set off other problems in the region.
If they actually start acting instead of rattling their sabers - as they've been doing on and off for quite some time - Obama will react quite swiftly, as will Taro Aso - and likely Hu Jintao, too. And that's a good
realpolitik reason for handling North Korea with kid gloves; not only do they have an army camped on the border of one of our close allies and trading partners, and missiles that can shoot at one of our other close allies and trading partners, but also because a war that isn't thoroughly justified is likely to provoke other conflicts - some of them larger. A conflict that involves China would have consequences felt from Taiwan to Tibet, and could easily expand outward from there. Wars aren't something you carry out lightly.