GOP Rep Hoekstra: Terrorists Greater Threat Than Nazis
The argument that terrorists represent a graver threat than the Nazis did appears to be gaining traction among current and former Republican officials.
The latest to make the claim: GOP Rep Pete Hoekstra, at a press conference today announcing the GOP’s new “Keep Terrorists Out Of America Act,” which is designed to restrict the housing of Guantanamo detainees on American soil.
Asked by a reporter whether this wasn’t comparable to the detainment of Nazis in prisoner of war camps during World War II, Hoekstra said the two were “night and day” because of the threat of “homegrown terrorism” and because of 9/11:
The other day, Condoleezza Rice suggested that Al Qaeda was a greater threat than Nazi Germany, because the Nazis didn’t attack the homeland. Hoekstra appears to be making a slightly different argument: That the individual terror suspects are a greater threat than individual Nazis were on American soil because of their alleged association with terror.
But David Kurtz notes that some 425,000 Axis POWs were detained in America at the end of World War II, versus only a couple hundred Gitmo detainees who would be held here.
Either way, the Republicans are now really running with this one again.
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Really, Greg? The most salient takeaway is that some GOP gasbag thinks Terrorists > Nazis?
How about focusing on the crux of the debate here — namely, that GOPers (and a few Dems) apparently have zero faith in the ability of our penal system to retain criminals? Or that they’re curiously unconcerned about the presence of the mass murderers already imprisoned on U.S. soil?
These arguments are ridiculous on their face. I don’t think the Nazi angle is particularly meaningful or productive.
can’t we have more than one argument at the same time?
People keep bringing up the Nazi’s. I often read that someone equates Bush with Hitler …. now some ****** thinks the A.Q. guys in Gitmo are worse.
I say – they do not even compare. A.Q. & Bush are kindergardener’s compared to those people. Add Stalin in there as well.
By making the comparsions – they trivialize the true horrors of Nazi Germany.
Here’s the problem. Move Gitmo’s population to the mainland, they get attorney’s – and the vast majority walk. They get off with either time-served or there is insufficient evidence to proceed etc…
They go back to Afghanistan or Iraq or Somalia or where-ever and sooner or later, at least one of them is going to wind up blowing up a market or something. – and no one wants that – and there’s no political upside to it. But – legally – they should come here – and be tried.
This is America – they should get trials.
Of course we can, but that’s not what I meant. I’m saying that reporters’ emphasis on the WII POW example is misplaced when the facts as they stand today (e.g. – the infinitesimal probability that an incarcerated terrorist would escape and wreak havoc on American soil) so thoroughly validate the plan. The Nazi parallel may be attention-grabbing (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law), but it’s not particularly germane to the U.S. detention of terrorists in 2009.
Ugh
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I think thats the point Greg is making here in response to just how ridiculous the GOP is right now on the issue of closing GITMO. They have gone as far as to invoke the Nazi’s to try to fear monger but its like they don’t actually know the history of WWII where we actually housed Nazis in jails in this country.
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Greg I would add one more thing though.
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Not all of the prisoners in GITMO are al Qaeda figures so at least some of them ALSO didn’t attack the homeland and yet the GOP is still pissing their pants at the prospect of holding them in jails in their home states.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but in both of these cases (Hoekstra and Rice), wasn’t it the inquiring reporter who firsts invoked the Nazis? I’m not justifying their responses — merely observing that the journalists share some of the responsibility for injecting the Third Reich into this particular discussion.
Ugh – you might feel or hold that most logically germane or most effective rebuttal to GOP attacks on Obama’s plan is to point to the unspoken prior assumption that our prisons are inadequate, but I don’t agree.
Their goal here, as most everywhere presently, is to foster fear. Much better, I think, to put that cynical and destructive propagandist trick on prominent display. Concentrating on the quality of our prison system (thought that points to a position clearly unmerited by the facts) misses the opportunity to utilize the rhetorical (emotional) power which underlies what Godwin pointed to. Prison security stats don’t grip the attention in the same manner.
They are going to keep doing this fear-mongering thing and anything we can do to shine a light on it is not merely effective but necessary.
Amazingly the GOP’s entire Act has more numbers in it than their alternative budget proposal from last month.
If the threat is so different why did we put Japanese Americans in internment camps? Again on our very own soil.
Ok, somebody has to call a moratorium on using Nazis for any comparison whatsoever. I am calling it – no mentioning Nazis. No one can mention Nazis for any reason at all for another 50 years.
LOL, I like the “there was no danger of homegrown terrorism in WWII…”
Really? Because people didn’t think so at the time. Certainly not when they were rounding up Japanese people into camps–including the actor who eventually grew up to play Mr. Sulu on Star Trek. Not to mention, there was the Bund, and people were pretty freaked out about them.
The WWII analogy is correct because this hysteria is not new. Hysterics ALWAYS argue America has never faced such a grave threat, and we’re all going to die, so we’d better round up the bad guys. Only, of course, the threat is never quite what they make it out to be, and somehow we survive, and then we have to issue apologies for becoming hysterical and persecuting innocent people like, uh, Mr. Sulu.
But of course, this time is different.
anon – it’s the international version of “round up the usual suspects.”
Been with us about as long as o, prostitution, one suspects.
of course, condaleeza “no one could have foreseen” rice is once again wrong on her history. the nazis did in fact sink numerous US ships right off the east coast. the navy and coast guard were running patrols up and down the coast, ad even in long island sound.
and then there’s the little matter of that other axis power in the pacific, that did attack a port on US soil in 1942. (leading us to incarcerate japanese-americans on US soil, of course.) but i guess that’s easy to overlook, since it’s not like people still talk about it, or make movies about it or anything. or maybe it’s now republican dogma that oahu has always been part of kenya.
what i really love here though is that the GOP is so terrified that they ascribe superpowers to these guys. we’re talking about some guy who maybe drove bin laden around kabul for a year, but they act like he’s magneto. why, if he even gets a hold of a paper clip in detention, he’ll kill everyone at the facility and go on to tear up half of san francisco!
if the US criminal justice system can handle psychos like richard poplawski and stephen morgan (and much, much worse), i’m pretty sure it can keep the lid on some random losers from yemen.
“He just doesn’t get it..these people want to kills” Ya think Pete,. really?? We killed 1.4 million Iraqis Pete on your watch, not hard to understand.
“He did not connect the dots”, yet you are the ranking GOP chair, YOUR the first dot, how come you did not circumvent the Christmas day bomber? Your over site…its your damn job!
Standish, thanks for taking those jobs, from Michigan.
Missionary flight dropped over Columbia, again your oversight, were the hell were you its your job
You promised gave your word, you got elected because of term limits, yet here you are looking every bit the same politician you despised in 1993.
there are 200 bills waiting at the house of nope, where are you instead of working, you know legislating, you are out full time on the campaign trail.
every bit the politician you promised you would not become