The Irony of Hypocrisy

Steve Benson, the Republic's cartoonist, recently dressed up presidential hopeful Ted Cruz as Senator Joe McCarthy, the 1950s political operative notorious for recklessly accusing people of being communists.  I wonder if "progressives" like Mr. Benson, who accuse people of being a Hitler or McCarthy, realize the irony of their accusations.  Or is a better word for it hypocrisy.

Obama's Biggest Mistake

"Headmasters should be above the menial tasks.  They should keep their minds clear for policy and leadership."

-- Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, John le Carre

Muslims Fight Hitler's Marxist Allies... in Spain

Michael Kazin's review of Spain in Our Hearts, a book about the Spanish Civil War, neglects to mention the largest contingent fighting against the Americans enlisted in what Kazin describes as the "Communist-led International Brigades."   Muslim Berber troops from Spanish Morocco were the most significant contingent fighting the Communist-led forces.  Without these troops Franco's rebellion against the Spanish Republican would have died an early death, if it had been born at all.  Many of the Berber troops may have been just poor boys who needed a job, but the ferocity of these combatants suggest that most of the Muslims, like Spain's Catholics, saw themselves fighting Godless Communism.

Profession Kazin's most egregious oversight, however, is when he remarks "The [Spanish] Republic’s defeat, the historical wisdom goes, helped give Hitler the confidence to invade Poland that summer."

In fact!  Hitler got his confidence to invade Poland when he signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop "non-aggression" pact in August of 1939. This was an alliance between Hitler and Stalin to invade and divide Poland between them. The great irony of the America's Abraham Lincoln Brigade veterans was that they longed for America to come to their aid in the Spanish Civil War. After Stalin allied with Hitler, the Abraham Lincoln Brigade veterans stayed aligned with the Soviet Union and opposed aid to England and American intervention in World War II, right up until Hitler turned on his ally and invaded the Soviet Union in September of 1941.   

The following is the statement issued by the New York Post, Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, and signed by Fred Keller, Commander of the post. The posts in other cities, and every individual vet, are urged to give this statement or similar ones the widest possible circulation, so that our view of the war will become clear to our thousands of friends.  "We, the members of the New York Post of the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, who fought in the International Brigades in Spain for democracy against Fascism feel that the present European war is not an anti-fascist war but an imperialist war, and that as long as it remains so we not only will not take part in it, but we will emphatically oppose our country's entering it or giving assistance to either side." 

"Today the same press which falsified the character of the Spanish war is printing reams of Chamberlains propaganda in which the British Prime Minister attempts to hide his real aims under the guise that he is waging a war for democracy against fascism and for Polish independence. At the same time he misrepresents the true intent and service of the Soviet Union." 

"We therefore support the foreign policy of the U.S.S.R., which has consistently led and  aided the cause of peace and of truly democratic peoples throughout the world, and  which uses its powerful economy and armed force for the oppressed and attacked peoples of all the world." 

-- The Volunteer for Liberty, Organ of The Veterans for the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, October, 1939

The ALB was joined in its opposition to American involvement in WWII by the Daily Worker, the Morgen Freiheit, and the Almanac Singers, led by Pete Seeger and Millard Lampell, whose song "Plow Under" [every fourth American boy] opposed conscription to mobilize America for war.