Dolchstosslegende

"Stab in the back".

Originated in Germany, perfected by Hitler.

That's what the title means. Kevin Baker has written an outstanding article on the history of a "stab in the back" policy used by politicians to maintain power and control. The article is particularly notworthy for the history of the GOP "stab in the back" policy that has evolved beginning with FDR at Yalta, and has continued to this day. He also postulates that this will be our future as Iraq fails and conservatives have to find scapegoats. The article begins:

Every state must have its enemies. Great powers must have especially monstrous foes. Above all, these foes must arise from within, for national pride does not admit that a great nation can be defeated by any outside force. That is why, though its origins are elsewhere, the stab in the back has become the sustaining myth of modern American nationalism. Since the end of World War II it has been the device by which the American right wing has both revitalized itself and repeatedly avoided responsibility for its own worst blunders. Indeed, the right has distilled its tale of betrayal into a formula: Advocate some momentarily popular but reckless policy. Deny culpability when that policy is exposed as disastrous. Blame the disaster on internal enemies who hate America. Repeat, always making sure to increase the number of internal enemies.[my emphasis]

As the United States staggers past the third anniversary of its misadventure in Iraq, the dagger is already poised, the myth is already being perpetuated. To understand just how this strategy is likely to unfold—and why this time it may well fail—we must return to the birth of a legend.

Think Vietnam, the red scares, Joe McCarthy, Korea, the fall of China after WWII (who lost China?) and the "loss" of the eastern European countries after WWII. Think George Patton railing against the lily-livered politicians who wouldn't take out the Ruskies when we had the troops in Europe to do it. Think of the conservatives who said the same thing about Bush I and the Gulf War, and how they vowed to "finish the job" with jr. The stab in the back, in each instance, came from weak and wimpy liberals who just didn't seem to have the guts to "stand up and fight". How the country and it's pride were stabbbed in the back by the traitors who failed the mission.

Care to guess what meme is arising in the wake of Bush's mess in the Middle East? Baker does a great job laying it out and also giving some hope as to why it may not work. Go give it a read, you won't regret it.

Andrew Sullivan very recently:

The pro-war right is surely not going to take defeat in Iraq or at home gently. If we withdraw from Iraq in the next year, and a terror attack occurs in the U.S., regardless of its provenance, watch Giuliani blame the Democrats and try to win the election on a classic "we-were-stabbed-in-the-back-we need-a-strong-leader" message. The constitutional dangers of such a move are, of course, grave. I can indeed see a scenario in which a classic fascist-style appeal to wounded nationalism - combined with a call to suspend constitutional protections in favor of a presidential protectorate and a Weimar-style "stab-in-the-back" smear against the MSM - will become the mantra of the Southern-dominated GOP in the next election. If you can't see it coming, you don't know who they are.