BS, I think you make a compelling point about what Goering is trying to do and I thank you for finally engaging with the topic that Toblerone raised. Daiwa, you are welcome to your cynicism, but as a personal friend of Toblerone I am willing to disagree with you about his intentions. You have assumed that about Toblerone because many other people who have pointed out the similarities between Bush's tactics and Goering's statements also want to equate Bush's actions with Hitler's. Toblerone and I have both pointed out that people who do that are being stupid.
Unfortunately then BS starts getting allon his high horse again, making gross generalisations about the Left in order to supprt his prejudice against anyone who disagrees with him about Iraq. He simply can't fathom that anyone who disagrees with him about Iraq might have a justified reason for believing the Iraq War was unjustified, or that a student of rhetoric might want to discuss rhetoric separated from the issue of the War. But then, that is the sort of shrill, emotive response we hjave come to expect from Right wingers. (I don't really believe that, but it is fun to use Draginol's words against you).
"Toblerone ignores the fact that Goering isn't really stating how they controlled Germany, and he and Goering are just trying to pretend that Germany just did what Bush and everyone else does. Toblerone ignores the fact that there were many good reasons to go to war with Iraq, and pretends that the American people had to be brainwashed into supporting it."
Toblerone actually has said very little about the topic as a whole, so he ignores a lot of things. His contribution has mainly been "Discuss". I happen to know that Toblerone opposed the War in Ira, and he and I aren't in total agreement on this point. Our disagreement is however irrelevant to this topic. I think there are certainly some very good arguments for the War in Iraq. But instead of using them, Bush used the tactics that Goering identifies. (Goering did not use these tactics alone, but I think BS that you underestimate the power of language to convince people). While there are intelligent people who came to their own conclsuions about the Iraq War and came to agree with the War, there are plenty of Americans who came to agree with the War for fairly stupid and uninformed reasons (the same can be said for those who disagree with the war, but that has nothing to do with the Goering quote). Bush used the tactics available to him to convince an uninformed public to engage in a War that could have been justified to rational, intelligent people using different arguments. I commend you BS for making up your own mind about Iraq, but do not delude yourself that the entire nation followed your example. All politicians use propaganda techniques to promote their cause. Whether or not this is justified is open to debate. You seem to feel it is. Can you explain your point of view for why? There are many good arguments for why it is justified, but what are your reasons?
