[hellinahandcart]

When you have to read through fifteen paragraphs before you first encounter the word "socialism", it ain't a historical piece, it's a propaganda piece. Cameron McWhirter leaves out WAY too much, and I can only assume that's deliberate. If he knows who Aflaq is, he knows how much Aflaq admired Hitler, and that the Ba'ath party was modeled directly upon the Nazi party.

The party wasn't "hijacked by dictators". It was a plan for dictatorship and repression from the very beginning. How the hell else does he think "the state" could run the entire economy?

I am forced to conclude that...McWhirter probably sends fan letters to Castro, and dreams of dancing with Kim Jong Il (just like Maddie Albright).

[xm177e2]

When you have to read through fifteen paragraphs before you first encounter the word "socialism", it ain't a historical piece, it's a propaganda piece.

Yes, especially because Ba'athism is not Sweden-style socialism, it's German-style National Socialism, in which the entire economy is meant to be nationalized. It's not short-work-week-high-taxes-high-unemployment socialism, it's dictatorship socialism.