Bush compares Taliban to Communist regimes

[Chris Kromm]

Of course it's shrewd, and I tip my hat to Bush for his deviousness. But
shrewd political moves are often logically irrational, aren't they? The fact
that the Taliban FOUGHT communism makes the comparison ridiculous on its
face. But that doesn't mean that it won't be an effective piece of
propaganda...

Date: Wed, 7 Nov 2001 08:26:07 -0500
From: "Chip Berlet" <cberlet at igc.org>
Subject: Re: Bush compares Taliban to Communist regimes

Hi,

I think you are missing the main point. Bush is trying to revive the
centrist/extremist theory of social science that argued that extremists of
the
left and right threaten the democratic center. The original idea was that
communism and fascism were two sides of the same totalitarian coin. This was
not
what Hannah Arendt wrote in her book Origins of Totalitarianism, but it was
widely misrepresented, especially by Jeane J. Kirkpatrick.

This is not irrational at all. It is a shrewd political move.

- -Chip Berlet