Holocaust Redux, Again and Again

Quite a bit of chatter in the blogosphere today about Charles Rangel’s hysteria in comparing the Iraq war to the Holocaust. I think that what he was trying to allude to is the people’s silence in face of horrific crimes being committed by their government. Normally, Rangel is a pretty levelheaded liberal Democrat, which means that I disagree with almost every position he takes and everything he says, but respect his right to say so and the way he presents it. This case is unfortunate. Read what he said.

"It's the biggest fraud ever committed on the people of this country," Rangel told WWRL Radio's Steve Malzberg and Karen Hunter. "This is just as bad as six million Jews being killed. The whole world knew it and they were quiet about it, because it wasn't their ox that was being gored."

And then, later.

"I am saying that people's silence when they know terrible things are happening is the same thing as the Holocaust, where everyone would have me believe that no one knew those Jews were killed over there."

"Those Jews". I like that. I am waiting for some equally clueless Republican to mention, "those Negroes" or "those Africans" in reference to slavery and enjoy the shitstorm of criticism that follows (Rangel no doubt leading the charge). I’m waiting for some equally ham handed military type to mention, "those Muslims" in reference to international terrorism or "those books" in reference to desecrated Korans (Quran, Qu’ran, whatever) and amuse myself as CAIR and all the other self styled representatives of the religion of peace swell with righteous indignation and unleash their propaganda machines against the unfortunate perp.

In any case, he says that the war is a fraud. That is a debatable point. He says that the war is the biggest fraud in American history, another debatable position. He says that the whole world knew about the Holocaust and did nothing. 400,000 American war dead tell me from their graves that we did something. I don’t consider the sacrifice of 400,000 American men and women to be nothing, thank you. Perhaps one could debate the how of it and the when of it and even the why of it but not the what of what we did.

Now to the Holocaust reference. Six million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust in the most vile manners that you can imagine. Six million men, women and children. It has been a long time ago and the vast majority of people around the world who were alive during those days are no longer with us to tell the tale. So it becomes easier by the day to relegate the Holocaust to the ash heap of history. Sure, we should never forget and we probably won’t. But remembering a thing is one thing, and remembering the horror of it is quite another.

Therefore it becomes easier as time marches on to reference various events of the day to events that occurred some 65 years ago. Easy, but not correct. Every time we do it, as Rangel did it, we reduce and distill the unimaginable horror of it to a mere historical event, like the sacking of Rome or the massacre at the Alamo. It was not merely some historical event. It was the Holocaust. To ever mention the Holocaust in the same breath or in reference to anything other than possibly the mass murders committed in the Soviet Union by Lenin’s and then Stalin’s communists, in China by Mao’s communists, in Cambodia by Pol Pot’s communists or in Armenia by Kamal Ataturk’s Muslims is to spit on the graves of a hundred million murdered souls. Rangel should be ashamed and apologize.

He won’t, of course, because his vitriolic hatred of conservatism and the Bush administration has blinded him to any unintended effects that his words might cause. Also, the Democratic party is smugly content in the knowledge that no matter what they say, no matter how condescending or insulting they may become, they still have the Jewish vote in their pockets. I don’t understand that last but then I’m not a Jew.

One need only meander around the blogosphere to see the references, one after another after another, comparing the Holocaust to modern events in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Darfur, Zimbabwe, etc. etc. etc. ad infinitum, ad nauseam. The people making these references have not even the slightest cognizance of nor appreciation for nor respect for the deaths of six million innocents or for the manner in which they died.

Show some respect, folks.

Linked to: QandO, Pejman, Michelle Malkin, Arthur Chrenkoff, The Unalienable Right, Physics Geek, The Golden Gate, Decision 08, PoliPundit, Shape of Days (with fake but accurate quote), Sundries Shack, Joust the Facts, Shot in the Dark, Michelle Malkin II, Museum of Left Wing Lunacy, Happy Carpenter, Entropy Manor, Ed Driscoll, Democracy Market, GOP and the City, Dadahead, House of Wheels, Democracy Market, Point Five, Apologies Demanded, Daniel in Brookline, Polar Opposite Politics, The Baltimore Reporter, Mudville Gazette, Jeff Gannon,
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