World War Two Myths and the Apocalyptic "Pro-Family" Right

Max Blumenthal here at the Raw Story reports about James Dobson and other "pro-family" evangelical leaders meeting with President George Bush to discuss Iraq, Iran and international terrorism. The first thing that occurred to me is "Why the f--k is President Bush speaking to James Dobson about these issues?" I want President Bush to talk to people who are knowledgeable in combating terrorism, dealing with the violence and security problems in Iraq that are spiraling out of control, and engaging with Iran about its nuclear program. What the hell is James Dobson going to tell him, except maybe spout Bible quotes.

And how is continuing the war in Iraq a "pro-family" issue? When you look at all of the wives who have lost husbands, children who have lost mothers and fathers, and parents who have lost sons and daughters, it would seem to me that the Iraq war is anti-family. Or put it this way, it is hard to take seriously the hysterical claims of the Religious Right that allowing gays to marry and adopt children is a threat to "traditional families" when you consider how many American families, those military families that Evangelicals profess to love so much, have been damaged by IED's in Iraq.

What also caught my interest is near the end, when Dobson tried to draw a parallel between Adolf Hitler and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Like so many of the historically ignorant, he claims that "if we didn't stand up to Hitler, we'd be speaking German today."

America stood up to Hitler because he declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941, just a few days after the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. It's not as though FDR was like some gentle giant who suddenly decided to step in and stop a bully boy Hitler from beating up the other kids in the school playground. It is also often overlooked by those who spout misinformed World War Two analogies that for all the talk of Britain standing alone against Hitler until the Americans rode in like the cavalry to save the day, it was the Soviet Union that absorbed the brunt of the German Wehrmacht during that fateful year in 1941. Two days before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the Soviets had halted the German advance at the outskirts of Moscow and were beginning their counteroffensive. There was never any chance of Hitler forcing the American people to speak German because by the time Hitler had declared on the United States, the tides of war had already started to shift against him.