Sean Spicer's Gas

Yesterday the usual suspects wet their panties as Sean Spicer made a historically correct but badly worded comparison between WW2 Germany and the current civil war in Syria. The usual suspects went on to claim that Spicer was denying the holocaust (he did no such thing) and that he should resign (or be fired) for his alleged trespass on the feelings of a certain powerful minority. As a result of this, people will continue to be miseducated as to WW2.

Lets get this out of the way. In WW1 the warring parties discovered a potent use for chemicals. They could release various gasses in a battle field and the enemy would essentially suffocate to death. No armaments needed. No risk of lives (except for a change in wind direction). The results were so abhorrent to the parties involved that it was decided that gas would not be used in any future conflict between these parties.

Indeed when WW2 started the British, for example, deployed gas masks to it's people because it feared that the Germans would not live up to their end of the deal. History shows that Nazi Germany, for all it's faults, did not use chemical arms during it's war. The prevailing wisdom is that they did not want to be attacked that way.

This is what Sean Spicer was referring to. Syria is in the midst of a war. It has allegedly used chemical weapons against those in open warfare against the government. The closest German analogy that could be made is if jews in Germany had picked up arms, en mass, against the state and were gassed in retaliation. We know that no such thing happened. Jews were indeed gassed by Germans when they were taken to various camps. But that was not a part of the war. That was Nazis being Nazis. War or no war Jews were headed for a bad end in Germany.

Assad may not be the most likable figure but he did not come to power or stay in power by spraying chemicals on various outgroups like say Saddam Hussein did (with the US's full knowledge). Furthermore, while the usual suspects are panty wetting over Sean Spicer's comments. Various ISIS affiliated groups have indeed gassed various non-Muslim groups and engaged in ethnic/religious cleansing with a fervor matching the Reich, if not it's industrial level and we can't even get a moratorium on letting people from such regions immigrating to the US

Strange isn't it.