I have never, nor will I ever, defend Saddam Hussein or his politics. I'm sure you didn't mean to imply that I had. No one was more repulsed when the Reagan/Bush administration blocked efforts at sanctions for the gassing of Kurds, our sales of weapons to the regime (also under Daddy's watch), Rumsfeld's photo-op's with Saddam, Gillespie's "green light" and perhaps worst of all, our own Undersecretary of State telling Saddam that he was "the leading force for moderation in the region" and that we wanted closer ties to him. I'm sure back then, like all good Republicans (if you were old enough) you were defending Saddam Hussein.

No, we didn't round up "all muslims". But surely you remember the "rounding up of Muslim students" to "just ask them some questions" on the heals of 9/11. Others have pointed out similarities to fascist policies in this thread (Ashton's contribution (as usual) is perhaps the best) to our propaganda efforts, intolerance of dissent, equation of questioning to anti-Americanism, etc.

My position is that it may well be argued that the difference between us today and Germany in 1938 is one of degrees only.

If we wish to maintain some resemblence to what is outlined in our own Constitution (that is, what is left of it), we cannot afford to "just trust that everything will be/is okay."

No, we are not Nazis, ..... yet.