The Who we can compare to Hitler thread

[Retrasado]

Sky Render said:
Hitler is a popular person to use as an example of an inherently evil leader, especially since his Antisemitism policies tug at the heartstrings of the devout of Western religions. It's sad, but there are a significant number of people who would say Hitler was worse than Mao or Stalin simply because he killed Jewish faithful. As if somehow a person's worth is less if they don't believe in a Western religion.

Actually, Hitler was worse than Stalin or Mao because he was the primary reason behind the European theater of WWII. If it wasn't for Hitler, WWII as we know it would not have happened. As bad as Mao and (especially) Stalin were, they did not start a war that pretty much wiped an entire continent off the map in addition to killing ~40 million people. (whether Stalin would have caused said war does not matter because Hitler beat him to it)

I'm not even the first to point it out. Excusing somebody for their crimes simply because they're the leader of your country is more or less fascism. You should never assume that somebody is right by default because they are in power, nor should you assume that they are wrong. Take in the facts and judge fairly, not allowing cultural or national bias to cloud your judgment. That's my take on it, anyway.

Even if you do assume the war in Iraq is a crime (I won't bother arguing whether it was or wasn't because it is not relevant to this topic) Bush wouldn't belong on that list because he is not the leader of a totalitarian or near-totalitarian government (meaning the other parts of the government are not required/forced to rubberstamp his decisions) and he needed (and still needs) the support of a sizeable portion of said government to continue his operations. (Note the word "dictator" in the headers of each table; as bad as Bush may be, he's certainly no dictator, not even close) If you want to include him on the list for deaths caused, you could, but he would have to be in a seperate category.