Did Hitler Want War?

[Theoketos]

[quote name='Winchester' date='04 September 2009 - 10:23 AM' timestamp='1252074192' post='1960767']
Not a defense of Hitler, but an attempt to shed a different light on the cause of war. Nowhere is Hitler lauded or is the Holocaust denied or laid at the foot of the Britain's declaration of war.

Of course, one might draw comparisons between this argument and those who argue against attacking Afghanistan and Iraq...

But let's not let anything get in the way of calling this a defense of Hitler. The question is, how can we blame George Bush for this and prop up Obama as the One?
[/quote]


I am not sure Pat things the BHO is the one.

[Winchester]

Paddie is kind of a blowhard. But he's better than The Comrade in Chief.

[Freudentaumel]

[quote name='CatherineM' date='03 September 2009 - 12:31 AM' timestamp='1251927074' post='1959990']
I don't think Hitler wanted war. He was hoping everyone would just give him what he wanted without a fight. He basically started the war because the financing he got to rebuild Germany was coming due. Balloon payments can be such a bummer.
[/quote]
That's what was taught in school to me, too. Ironically, if you look at the numbers the third Reich had much less debt, than the US, Germany or almost any other country have today. And I'm not talking absolute numbers (of course it's true for them, too) but percentagewise to the GDP.
It might still be true, that he was running out of money, but then I don't want to know the disaster we're heading towards.

[Marie-Therese]

[quote name='dauntingknight' date='03 September 2009 - 03:08 PM' timestamp='1252008493' post='1960456']
Why, was Hitler going after only "true blooded Germans" in Germany when he was not a true German himself.
[/quote]

To seriously understand the question you're asking, you have to consider a number of points.

1. Hitler's entire power structure was built on a cult of personality. He had to prop up the German populace with something that would undergird them and give them a sense of unity. He picked the Jewish people as his scapegoat and took it from there. Now, certainly he had some bizarre religious underpinning to his argument that caused him to select Jews, but to be truthful he needed someone to take the blame and the Jews were his convenient target. Let's also not forget that being able to seize the Jewish community's assets helped his cause too. Hitler might be the most psychotic despot in modern time, but he wasn't stupid. There was a method to his madness.

2. Hitler was the king of self-delusion. He was able to conveniently forget that he, himself, had Jewish lineage. Part of the modus operandi of someone with delusions of grandeur is that they are able to take the focus off themselves and that they eventually come to have some degree of belief in their own propaganda. Hitler created the Arian myth and let himself believe it. It was easier that way. Also, it was necessary to have a reason for him to commit genocide right in front of his own nation and have his population generally support what he was doing...if they thought that the promotion of a "pure blood" society would preserve them, they went along with it.

3. At essence, all dictators survive by eliminating the competition. Hitler selected segments of his society that he found undesirable (Jews, Catholics, poor, handicapped, etc.) and removed them. He surrounded himself with those who he elevated to a premier status, thereby ensuring that they would be loyal to him.

4. Last but not least...Hitler was a nutball!! He was completely unstable and paranoid...mix that with a narcissistic personality and a flair for charisma, and you have a recipe for disaster. Germans were disillusioned and desperate after WWI, and Hitler was more than happy to fill the void.

[Maximilianus]

[quote name='Nihil Obstat' date='04 September 2009 - 04:00 AM' timestamp='1252051241' post='1960705']
Remember how we were talking about how justifying negative marks would be a cool way to keep the system accountable and the way it was meant to be? Well I'm just saying, I'd like to hear reasoning.
[/quote]
Eh, that was me. Gave you a + for post 17, then took it away for a dumb reason. Perdón.

[Saint Therese]

I think that maybe Hitler just needed to get in on the hugging thread.