Paranoia against military did come true
Part 2 of 2
The comic book hero Captain America burst on the scene 80 years ago this month.
The red-white-and blue clad American hero was shown on the cover of that comic book – a unique American form of science fiction -- punching Adolph Hitler in the jaw.
Since Captain America went on to world-wide fame for fighting Nazis during World War II, that does not seem unusual to us today. However, the United States of America was not at war with Germany at that point.
At that time, Hitler was just another world leader who was unpopular in this country, but very popular in his country.
Joseph Stalin, dictator of Russia, was just as unpopular in America at that time. Stalin and Hitler were actually allies in
March 1941. That alliance would be destroyed when
Hitler had the German
Army invade Russia during
Operation Barbarossa in
June 1941.
The United States and
Germany would not go to war with each other until after the Japanese bombed
Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
So that cover with the man who was the embodiment of the American spirit hitting the leader of another country was a bold move.
What would people say if today Captain America punched out Xi Jinping of China or Vladimir Putin of Russia?
The comic book starts with German fifth columnists that had secretly come to the U.S. and jointed the American military blowing up a munitions plant.
Just a short historical note: Fifth columnist is a name that came from rebel General Emilio Mola during the Spanish Civil War. He said Madrid would fall as four columns of rebel troops approaching the city. He expected a hidden column of sympathizers within the city would help capture Madrid
Those who supported an enemy to the nation they lived in were described in the media as the rebel’s “fifth column.” Famed writer Ernest Hemingway used that name and it stuck during that preworld War II era.
Back to Captain America: The story moves on as two unnamed generals tell the president — he isn’t named but is obviously Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt who is the only president to be elected to four terms in the White House — that the military is filled with spies. “The Army is spotted with spies it’s — it’s useless,” one of the generals says to FDR. While there was a little sabotage activity from Germans who had legally immigrated to this country, the reality was far from the paranoia shown in “Captain America Comic 1.” The real paranoia of that time involved Japanese immigrants who legally came to this country.
After the Jan. 5 riot at the U.S. Capitol, the National Guard was called in to build a fence around the Capitol to “protect” Members of Congress.
When President Donald Trump left the White House, Democrats began an effort to purge Trump supporters in particular and conservatives in general from all places in society.
Democrats demanded that the FBI investigate members of the National Guard serving in Washington, D.C., and screen out anyone who might have voted for Trump. Yes, voting for the candidate of their choice was equated with being the new fifth columnist in America. No member of the Guard has refused any lawful order to guard the Capitol. There was no evidence that those sworn to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution had any plans but to carry out the mission they had been tasked with.
Instead, those military troops have done their job while being denied hotel and motel rooms and being forced to sleep on floors of public buildings. At one point they were forced to sleep in unheated garages in the winter.
Those in uniform were provided substandard food — as evidenced by some of them having to be hospitalized.
There was some Democrat paranoia that American patriots would use force on March 4 to replace Joe Biden with Trump. Nothing happened.
Still, Democrats in charge of Congress want federal troops to protect them until next fall and maybe beyond that time period.
Science fiction often gives us a preview of the future. This piece of science fiction predicted a Democrat in power would think the American military was somehow not loyal to this nation.
That wasn’t true in 1941 and it isn’t true today, but the prediction of Democrat paranoia against the U.S. military did come true.