Taft = Byrd

RONALD RADOSH makes the case that what Bush is doing today compares to Roosevelt in 1941. He does this by comparing the speech given by Ohio Republican Sen. Robert A. Taft in May 1940 to Sen. Robert Byrd's recent remarks to the U.S. Senate. At that time (1940) the anti-war establishment in congress wanted to maintain an isolationist stance bacause "the executive branch was moving America towards dictatorship, violating the norms of democratic policy -- flouting international law and taking unnecessary measures that would actually harm national security". What this essay fails to distinguish is the difference between Hitler's domination of Europe and well-oiled military of that point in time, and Hussein's hodge-podge military and kept-in-check excursions outside his borders. Another point this essay fails to address is the fact that one of the "reasons" for invading Iraq is to free the oppressed population. Well, there are probably three or four dozen other countries today where the population lives under a terrorist regime yet not under threat of U.S invasion to free the oppressed. I guess we're back to the "It's the Oil, Stupid" reason?