Ollie it really was a sort of begrudging "olive" branch...

Ollie it really was a sort of begrudging "olive" branch supporting some of the points of the reviewer. As always I couldn't resist the cheap shots. Thought it might get your adrenalin flowing for a full blooded assault on something or other. Looks like poor Senator B. is the worthy object.

I think the weakness in the review (and having not read the book it is possible to take the reviewers comments out of context) is more to do with an unwarranted optimism, that because even the worst excesses of Nazism,fascism,totalitarianism,authoritarianism and police states were not perfect or were unable to permanently change the affected populace and every subject into a committed (term of like) supporter, then we have little to worry about. I would suggest that is a misreading of human nature and thus it is not a sound or safe view.

His position he offers, is confirmed by Germany becoming a model democratic state. While one would applaud that result it is also true that a large effort was made in post war reconstruction in a fairly ruthless de-Nazifiction program. (of course the possibilty of these changes (Germany, Italy, Spain etc) are what undergirds and is a model, by extension, for Bush's vision of the emergence of a democratic Iraq and eventually the whole ME).

However I would place alongside that change a recent EU(?) poll that sees Israel as the greatest threat to world peace, as some indication, that you can take the man out of nazism but you it's not so easy to take nazism out of the man.

The balance it seems to me is to be aware of history,particularly of the ideas and the forces that gave rise to fascism and Nazism, then balance vigilance with tolerance.