Bush's historical revisionism

Atrios at Eschaton wonders why Bush would say this when touring Auschwitz:

At one point Mr. Bush turned to Ms. Swiebocka and asked, "Do people challenge the accuracy of what you present?" Mr. Fleischer, who was accompanying the president a few paces behind, said he could not hear the answer.

My answer: It's pretty clear that Bush -- who loves to make himself out a victim (of liberal bias) too -- asked the question because he sees himself in the same boat regarding his inability to prove that Saddam Hussein possessed biological and chemical weapons, the cornerstone of his rationale for invading a sovereign nation. Of course, without that rationale, Bush begins looking more and more like the international aggressor, not Hussein.

The difference is this: The evidence of the Holocaust is simply irrevocable. The evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is, evidently, unrecoverable.

Bush's tasteless willingness to play on the Holocaust imagery is particularly questionable, considering that his own grandfather was one of the great American capitalist contributors to the Nazi war machine. But this whole exercise was a gigantic public-relations gambit, intended to draw a clear parallel between Hussein and Hitler. It appears the Busheviks -- who are increasingly unpopular around the world -- are hoping they can pull the same bullshit over the eyes of the international community that they have with a substantial portion of the American public, not to mention the entire population of the punditocracy.

Unfortunately, Bush's analogy is not only ahistorical, it is every bit as revisionist as the kind of "Holocaust denial" as that practiced by the right-wing Institute for Historical Review and its sympathizers. Saddam was no Hitler. He was a tinpot who could barely run his own country.

And yes, Mr. Bush, people do question the accuracy of the recounting of the Holocaust. They are all on the right, and include such conservative stalwarts as Pat Buchanan. Indeed, one of their chiefs is a fellow named David Irving, who has been regularly defended by such ardent Busheviks as Christopher Hitchens.

They are liars. And so, I might add, are the politicians who led us to war by telling us Saddam had nukes.