It is one thing for Americans to be critical about the handling of our war against terrorism (personally I think that it is warranted). However it is something totally different when folks label our government and troops “terrorists” while the same folks give groups like Al-qaeda and other like-minded groups that teach their children the “value” of strapping on a bomb as the “innocent oppressed”.
While on Michelle Malkin’s website this morning, she made mention of a political cartoon Dr. Seuss did that best describes the view of many here in America and the West who have a penchant of becoming very silent when folks in non-western countries are victimized by those who claim to come under the banner of the “religion of peace”.
Written by Martin Philip
(excerpted)
(onlineopinion.com.au) If you thought Dr. Seuss just wrote kids’ books, think again. The creator of “The Cat in the Hat†was also a brilliant political cartoonist. His notoriety as a children’s author has largely obscured his prodigious output for defunct New York daily newspaper PM, for which he was chief editorial cartoonist from 1941-1943.
Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini and Hirohito were all subjected to the withering wit of Dr. Seuss in over 400 cartoons, 200 of which appear in a recently published book, “Dr. Seuss Goes to War†.
American historian Richard H. Minear provides biographical and historical context to Dr. Seuss’s output, but this article is all about the cartoons themselves.
The cartoon published in PM on June 2, 1941 shows a dragon emblazoned with swastikas straddling the Atlantic. Europe is visibly in ruins on the other side of the pond as arch-appeaser Charles Lindbergh pats the dragon, the head of which bears an uncanny resemblance to Hitler. The speech caption says: “’Tis Roosevelt, Not Hitler, that the world should really fear†.
The same sort of moral relativism is still with us 60 years on. George Monbiot, for instance, assured Guardian readers in August 2002 “the greatest threat to world peace is not Saddam Hussein, but George Bush†.
Dr. Seuss’s cartoons provide other parallels between WWII and the war on terror. The insistence in contemporary pacifist circles that Saddam Hussein’s crimes against humanity offered no cause to violate Iraq’s sovereignty is echoed in a cartoon showing a mother reading her children a story, “Adolf the Wolfâ€. The children are aghast as their mother reads:
“…And the Wolf chewed up the children and spit out their bones…But those were Foreign Children and it didn’t really matter.†(more…)
This article contains links to some of the many political cartoons by Dr. Seuss.
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June 7th, 2007 at 6:17 am
While discussing the American gov’t’s dissonance on terrorists and terrorism is arguably impolitic (see, ‘Ron Paul’), a more egregious insult to human dignity is drawing parallels between Hussein and Hitler, or the inappropriately named War on Terror and WWII.
June 7th, 2007 at 6:29 am
A very off base opinion that ignores many of the parallels, but oh well it is your chosen opinion.