I can kinda, almost understand the appeal of dressing up like a Nazi and doing World World Two reenactments. When I was a teenager, I played a lot of Avalon Hill board games (mainly Squad Leader) and I always played as the Germans. There are a bunch of reasons for this. I thought it was more fun to try to change history rather than just confirm it. The Germans always had superior equipment. They were the underdogs. And I have some German ancestry. Plus, the Holocaust was definitely not a part of those games, so I didn’t have to commit any atrocities. And, finally, all the best scenarios were battles between the Germans and the Soviets, so, really, what was the difference?
I must have fought the Battle of Stalingrad more than a dozen times, and I usually figured out a way to make the Germans win.
Having said that, I was a teenager. I had no sympathy for the German side. And I didn’t join of group of Nazi sympathizers and dress up in Waffen SS uniforms.
When I was barely eight years old, I saw the reenactment of the Battle of Princeton on its 200th anniversary, and I thought it was totally cool. I’ve watched Civil War reenactments on television. I understand the appeal of the whole reenactment thing. But I still think it’s incredibly suspect to dress up as a SS officer and characterize the German army and their allies as “thousands upon thousands of valiant men [who] died defending their respective countries in the name of a better tomorrow.”
I’m sorry, but there was no better tomorrow on the horizon.
And yet Monday … Glenn Beck will likely claim he’s a Democratic plant .. either that .. or a good man is being smeared
Isn’t Beck on mental rest right now?
Idiot rest.
I played AH games as a kid and as an old man still dabble in computer counterparts. I also get the reenactor appeal, though I prefer the guys why march around like Roman legionnaires.
But this!? Just plain sick.
Well, yes. Wiking (is that like Viking? are we talking Wagner here?), was fighting against “Untermenschen” i.e. Poles and Russians – so it’s ok? Why did Hitler set out to destroy Leningrad from the outset (in contrast to, say, Paris, which he only planned to destroy if it was going to be recaptured by the Allies). Iott’s excuses are like a precis of GOP garbled (brain farts?). He’s got Condi’s concept of “history” i.e. a category that makes something irrelevant (Bin Laden determined to attack in the usa wasn’t important because it was “historical”) and lots and lots of GOPers definition of the word “out of context” i.e. redefine everything I said. I hope we’re dealing with a Macaca moment here. (the pukes aren’t even scraping the bottom of the barrel. they’re now under the barrel). And he’s taking his son to these Nazi fantasy fests? – father son bonding? btw I’m a great fan of real reenactments as genuinely historical – in the respectful use of the term and the wonderful film Glory uses reenactors for the battles, they are great.
Imagine this uniform in Obama’s “closet”. Yeah, that would just be fine provided Obama clarified it with a statment like:
The Teabaggers would have a run on the “Obama is Hitler” banners for their rallies.
Waffen SS uniforms I think typo
Yes, thank you.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/10/ohio-tea-partier-spent-weekends-playing-nazi-games.php
guess I’m in laugh not cry mode. the crop of gop candidates is just incredible. is this what carl rove has been up to for the past 2 yrs, recruiting these morans?
The Dwight Schrute character on “The Office” is shades of Karl Rove.
Quotes: Dwight Schrute: How would I describe myself? Three words: hard working, alpha male, jack hammer. Merciless. Insatiable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgJ2Tebpn_o
reminds me more of Rumsfeld actually. too physical for Rove imo.
with Rove, seeing him as a talking head on a tv interview, it’s entirely plausible that he has no body
Rich Iott is following the ignoble example of David Duke. Iott’s remark reminds me of something Pat Buchanan or the late Joseph Sobran would say. I hope it sinks Iott, who is running against incumbent Marcy Kaptur.
My ancestry is 3/4 German, I speak German, and my partner’s brother is married to a German, my nieces are German citizens. And yet there is not a single bit of Nazi-paraphernalia, much less -sympathies in the entire family (well, not since my Danish great-aunt’s crazy husband Adolph [yes, his real name] died years ago).
I find this sort of historical amnesia frightening.