In the midst of the interesting debate on Iraq, Denys made a couple of statements on tangential issues, which went uncorrected but I thought had to be addressed.



Firstly, that “Hitler was a Socialist”.  He wasn’t. He was a fascist, way out to the right of the political spectrum. I’m assuming the statement was made based on the name Hitler chose for his party. Hitler initially joined the German Workers Party which he later renamed the National Socialist German Workers' Party (commonly Nazis). They were a far right wing party that matched his principles perfectly: anti-communist, anti-semitic, anti-immigration, extreme nationalists who felt that Germany had been humiliated in the peace after the First World War. The use of words like “Workers” and “Socialist” was deliberate to tap into the general interest in socialism and make it appear that it represented the bulk of a disaffected population – Hitler being a master manipulator as well as orator.



The other issue relates to Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav leader now being tried for crimes against humanity amongst other indictments.  Milosevic’ forces massacred tens of thousands of civilians (Srebrenica being one of the most heinous of his actions where General Ratko Mladic murdered some 8,000 Bosnian Muslims and threw their bodies into mass graves), “ethnically cleansed” areas habited by hundreds of thousands of non-Serbs by way of murder, forcible removal, torture and rape. He started 3 wars in his region and created a humanitarian crisis Europe had not seen since Hitler. Numerous mass graves have been found, throughout the areas of his control, where civilians, regardless of age and sex , were slaughtered by Milosevics forces and allies. I would suggest that of the few “just” wars, then the West’s use of military force against Milosevic that made him capitulate, was such a war.  Especially when one considers (as far as I know) that there were no hidden agendas regarding capture and control of resources



Regards



Richard Ali




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