quote: "Final Solution" enthusiastically endorsed by the German people?    I would disagree.   There were decent Germans, some of whom were eventually executed.   And there were a huge number who just did not want to know what was going on and who wanted to support their leader--even a murderous unstable leader. After all, everything he had promised up to that point--against a huge amount of skepticism--had come true.

There were rumors of what was happening at the Eastern Front--which is where the wholesale mistreatment and slaughter--of partisans, prisoners and Jews--was going on. But most Germans did not know many details, knew it was possibly dangerous to know them, in fact, and tried to justify it any way they could--especially by citing the harsh conditions of war.

When I was younger I tried to imagine what it must have been like to live in Germany under Hitler. As I've followed the press coverage of wars over the last two decades, and the complacency and willful ignorance of most of the public, I've often felt I understood. But this discussion, and in particular Ron's reply to Michael's comment about the attitude of the German people, has reminded me that the situation there must have been incomparably worse. So I've been trying to think of a truly equivalent scenario in the world today.

Imagine that in the aftermath of 9/11, Blackwater founder Erik Prince enters politics and rises quickly, becoming US president on a platform that includes eliminating the threat of terrorism by discouraging Muslim emigration to the US and maintaining close scrutiny and curtailing civil rights of all Muslims already here. After taking office, he uses the extra-constitutional powers of the Patriot Act to start rounding up Muslims in the US and shipping them to Guantanamo, beginning with people suspected of having ties to al-Qaeda, but after a few more terrorist attacks inside the US he declares a state of national emergency and, among other things, expands the internment program, eventually rounding up all Muslims. Much as the real Erik Prince allegedly did with Blackwater employees, the hypothetical President Prince "encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life" (quote from The Nation) by US troops in Iraq. Gordon Liddy is made commander of the detention center at Guantanamo, and secretly begins a program of mass executions of detainees. The mainstream press doesn't report the mass executions or the program of wholesale murder in Iraq. There are rumors about these programs, and many Americans could learn more about them but are afraid of what they might learn, and the courageous few who do investigate and protest are arrested and imprisoned without trial. The population has a sense that something is wrong but the nation is in a state of emergency similar to wartime, and the terrorist bombings are occurring more frequently.

Could all that happen? I'd like to think not, but it's impossible to be confident. The fear instilled by 9/11 made Americans tolerate a lot of criminal activity by those in power. Maybe a state of war or state of siege would make them tolerate even these horrors.

Now consider a variation on that scenario. Prince is elected but there are no more terrorist attacks inside the US after 9/11. We enjoy peace and prosperity, and a sense of security thanks to his tough stance on terrorists and nations that harbor them. He's highly successful in both domestic and international issues because of his ruthless and systematic tactics, tolerating no dissent. He continues the policies of his predecessors, invading countries that have strategic resources, but does so more aggressively, and his success in those invasions adds to his prestige and power. He gets very favorable terms for oil leases from all Muslim countries, which keeps the price of gasoline in the US much lower than anywhere else. US companies build pipelines from the Caspian Sea to supply Europe, Japan, India, and China, increasing US prosperity to record levels. But Prince carries out his program of extermination of the Muslims anyway, because he just hates them and "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe." (quote from The Nation) He starts slowly, interning only suspected terrorists at first, but gradually expands the program to include all Muslims, and gradually turning the detention centers into extermination centers. Muslims in all the countries he invades are systematically eliminated under the same program as in Iraq and Guantanamo. Millions of Muslims are killed worldwide. His political opponents are unable to stop him because he's been so successful. Residents of occupied Muslim countries offer resistance but are no match for the US military machine. World powers are unable to intervene because of America's nuclear arsenal.

What do you think? How likely is that second scenario? Does a state of war or similar emergency change what a leader can get away with?