Cal Thomas: Dictators Like Putin And Hitler Only Know Power, Resolve And Resistance

 Cal Thomas compares Putin to Hitler in his column in the Washington Times. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of the sovereign nation of Ukraine under several pretexts reminds me of Adolf Hitler’s rationale for invading and annexing Sudetenland in 1938 and his invasion of Czechoslovakia and Poland a year later. Then, as now, the excuse was that German-speaking people (then) and Russian-speaking people (now) wanted to be part of Germany (then) and Mother Russia (now).

 

In both cases, the excuses for invasion, occupation and murder were just that — excuses. Some commentators say there has been nothing like Mr. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine since World War II. There are dwindling numbers of people alive who lived through that period and witnessed the evil of Nazi brutality and genocide.

 

President Ronald Reagan lived through that era. This is why he coined the phrase “evil empire” to describe the Soviet Union. It’s one thing to read about evil in history books, but it is quite another to have witnessed it. One need only listen to Holocaust survivors for a powerful lesson in how deep human depravity can sink if it is not opposed.

 

One of the definitions of evil is “The force in nature that governs and gives rise to wickedness and sin.” In our age of moral relativity where nearly everything is tolerated and justified — except people who oppose the new societal norms — who speaks of wickedness and sin? It’s getting harder to find preachers known for sermons on the subject.

 

Albert Einstein, who was German and Jewish, and who lived through that dark period of mass slaughter, was right when he observed: “The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.”

 

You can read the rest of the column via the below link:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/feb/23/dictators-like-putin-and-hitler-only-know-power-re/ 

Cal Thomas: Media's Swoon Over Biden Nothing New When Considering The History Of Journalism

Cal Thomas in his column at the Washington Times looks back on bias and sensationalism in the history of journalism. 

There is a perception, supported by many surveys, that what passes for contemporary journalism is more biased, even propagandistic, than in earlier times. One of the definitions of “journalism” on Dictionary.com will affirm that attitude for many: “writing that reflects superficial thought and research, a popular slant, and hurried composition …”

Journalism has, in fact, been infected by bias and sensationalism from the start. In his book, “Infamous Scribblers,” Eric Burns suggests that colonial journalism would often make today’s tabloids look like real news. Their slogan could have been “all the unfit news we print.”

Newspapers of those days published unverified scandals and statements by rival politicians that would today be considered slanderous, even libelous. 

George Washington coined the phrase Mr. Burns used for his book title. The summary on Amazon.com reads: “The journalism of the era was often partisan, fabricated, overheated, scandalous, sensationalistic and sometimes stirring, brilliant, and indispensable. Despite its flaws — even because of some of them — the participants hashed out publicly the issues that would lead America to declare its independence and, after the war, to determine what sort of nation it would be.” 

You can read the rest of the column via the below link:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/jan/25/medias-swoon-over-joe-biden-nothing-new-when-consi/  

You can also read about the beginnings of bias of journalism in William Safire’s fine historical novel Scandalmonger.  

Amazon.com: Scandalmonger (Harvest Book) (9780156013239): Safire, William: Books 

Cal Thomas: Out Of (Gun) Control

Columnist Cal Thomas offers his take on President Obama's gun control executive action in the Washington Times.

...In one of his last-gasp efforts to “fundamentally change” America, President Obama is taking executive action on gun control — because he knows he could never get Congress to agree — to keep guns out of the hands of people he claims should not have them.

Stiffer background checks are supposed to achieve his goal of reducing “gun violence,” despite the fact that, according to The Washington Times, “A record number of firearms background checks were conducted by the FBI in 2015 — equating roughly to 44 checks every minute.” A record-setting year. Yet people intent on breaking the law remain undeterred. The San Bernardino shooters who murdered 14 people at a holiday event did not have criminal backgrounds — until they opened fire. The massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., was committed by a disturbed man whose mother had legally obtained the guns.

Bloomberg reports that, “A study by the Department of Justice found that just 0.7 percent of state prison inmates in 1997 had purchased their weapons at a gun show.” “By contrast,” notes the study, “nearly 40 percent of inmates said they obtained the firearm used in their crime from family or friends, and 39 percent said they got the weapon from an illegal street source.”

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jan/6/cal-thomas-obamas-gun-restrictions-wont-deter-lawb/

Iraq Crisis: Did Obama's Foreign Policy Blunders Sow Seeds Of Disaster?

Columnist Cal Thomas at FoxNews.com looks at the seeds of the crisis in Iraq.

“It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain...” (The Gettysburg Address)

No life is more wasted than one lost in vain.

 

After the U.S. military battled heroically to liberate Iraq from Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship and to eliminate the possibility that it might become a staging area for terrorist attacks, the Obama administration has created a vacuum now being filled by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), an Al Qaeda affiliate, which has overrun Mosul and Fallujah, cities liberated by American soldiers. ISIS now threatens Baghdad.

 

The administration’s non-policy policy proclaiming the war over, has given ISIS a green light to establish another terrorist state in the Middle East. Following the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, al-Qaida will likely have two states from which it can plan and execute new assaults on America, Israel, Britain and other “infidel” nations. Having declared the war(s) over and al-Qaida “on the run,”

 

President Obama responds with empty rhetoric about his national security team studying what to do, then leaves for a trip that will end on a golf course in Palm Springs.

 Vice President Biden once called Iraq one of the president’s “great achievements.”

 

On Friday, the president announced the U.S. would not send military forces back to Iraq unless the Iraqi government finds a way to bridge sectarian differences. Even then, he suggested, military power alone won’t bring stability to the country. Basically, the president said, “Iraq, you’re on your own.”

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/06/14/iraq-crisis-did-obama-foreign-policy-blunders-sow-seeds-disaster/?cmpid=NL_morninghl

Cal Thomas On Jefferson And Ho Chi Minh

 

Syndicated columnist Cal Thomas offers his take on President Obama's comment that the late Communist leader of North Vietnam was influenced by Thomas Jefferson.

When it comes to Vietnam, I’m all for moving on, putting the past behind us, looking forward, letting bygones be bygones, but doing so requires honesty about the past, lest history be forgotten and the memory and honor tarnished of the 60,000 Americans who died in that war.

 

On his visit to Washington last week, President Truong Tan Sang of Vietnam told President Obama the late revolutionary Ho Chi Minh, was inspired by the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Constitution, and the words of Thomas Jefferson. In an ad in the Washington Post, President Sang even claimed Jefferson’s vision of liberty was the same as Ho’s.

 

Not exactly.

 

According to the U.S. State Department’s Vietnam 2012 Human Rights Report: “The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is an authoritarian state ruled by a single party, the Communist Party of Vietnam. … The most recent National Assembly elections, held in May 2011, were neither free nor fair. Security forces reported to civilian authorities. The most significant human rights problems in the country continued to be severe government restrictions on citizens’ political rights, particularly their right to change their government; increased measures to limit citizens’ civil liberties; and corruption in the judicial system and police.”

 

Does that sound Jeffersonian? 

 

You can read the rest of the column via the below link:

 

http://www.calthomas.com/index.php?news=4071 

 

You can also read an earlier post on Ho Chi Minh via the below link:

 

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2013/07/uh-ho-obama-says-vietnamese-dictator.html