Similarities
By: Tiffany Maple
Recently, many people have been comparing the United States President George W. Bush to Nazi Germany’s Adolf Hitler. Unlike numerous other times comparisons have been made of someone to Hitler, average people are not the only ones making these similarities, scholarly people are as well such as the German justice minister Herta Daeubler-Gmelin. Daeubler-Gmelin argued that Bush threatened war to divert attention from his domestic problems, which she then stated was a method even Hitler used. Many other correlations between the two leaders have been made and are used in many peace protests throughout the United States.
Both leaders thought of themselves as Christian men, who are working for the will of God. Hitler once said, “I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the almighty Creator.” This sounds similar to Bush’s statement, “With the Might of God on our side we will triumph.” Some people portray Bush and Hitler as power-hungry men, who only see themselves and their goals and refuse to listen to other authority figures. They also both built their military systems up, while they constantly told the people of their nation that they wanted to secure and maintain peace throughout the world.
The German nation as well as the United States were both in a bad state in the economy when each of these leaders came into power. Hitler and Bush promised their nations a better economy. They both used the strategy of fear to convince people that their cause was just. Hitler told his people that they must defend the Fatherland against the communists, where as Bush says we must defend the Homeland from the terrorists. Both Hitler and Bush emphasized the importance of unity throughout the nation.
Opinion Links on Similarities:
An American Counterfeit of the Rise and Fall of Nazi Germany
Speeches:
Hitler: Berlin: Proclamation to the German Nation Feb.1,1933
Bush: State of the Union Address of 2003