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Good Citizens should hang a portrait of Saddam in their home or workplace. (Image: Karim Sahig AFP)

As a half-German who has been raised under the harrowing tales of Adolph Hitler's rise to power and the feelings of hopelessness which prevailed prior and during the war years, I find the present debate and its consequences particularly frightening.

Millions died in horrible, often sickening and nauseating manners while the world debated. Debate was Hitler's ally - an ally accompanied by fear, procrastination and worst of all indifference.

While Hitler armed and the Krupp factories and others were churning out arms at frightening rates - in violation of the peace treaties imposed after WWI - the world did nothing. It debated. It postured and sadly was mostly indifferent. In Iraq, today the same violation of resolutions occur except on a much larger scale and with much more grave consequences - for these weapons are weapons of MASS destruction, chemical, biological and nuclear. The world debates. It postures. It is indifferent.

German citizens lived in a state of perpetual fear of the NAZI leadership and the brutal enforcement of their doctrines. Pictures of Hitler were to be displayed in every good Germans home. No one wanted to be caught without one - or be reported to the brownshirts by unfriendly neighbors. The picture was a detested thing by my family - a sign of submissiveness and obedience. The picture went up only when someone knocked on the door only to return to it's face down position on the mantle after the visitor left.

Fear was Hitler's friend. Fear is Saddam's friend. Now when I see the masses obliged to hang Saddam in their home or workplace I am reminded of the fear each Iraqi family must live with daily. A sense of hopelessness - pitting neighbor against neighbor.

A copy of the United Nations Chronicle sits upon my desk. Volume XXXV Number 1, from October of 1998. The cover shows a phot of the Secretary shaking Saddam Hussein's hand. Underneath the photo the phrase "Wisdom Wins". Another UN agreement which has been violated - captured in time. If one looks closely at the Secretary-Generals eyes the whole story is told. His eyes show distrust... and yes, fear.

Another image, another era is put into my mind. Another diplomatic "solution" to the hostile actions of a dictator.

Yes, Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler were the subjects of this photo. Chamberlain wanted to secure peace and diplomatic glory as badly as the Secretary-General of the UN does today. It was little surprise when I heard that Annan took it upon himself to broker another deal, another delay, another promise from Saddam to preserve the image that "Wisdom Wins".

Yes, wisdom wins. Saddam is wise enough to know how to placate the indifferent, the insincere and those who have not learned from history.

While the photo of Hitler and Chamberlain was taken, Messerschmitt fighters were being built, Luger pistols and countless pieces of artillery.

Now, the weapons of war have changed. A few ounces of a nerve toxin can decimate tens of thousands. The heavy machinery which was required to kill hundreds of thousands half a century ago can be produced in a mobile home the size of Winnebago for a fraction of the cost.

At this very moment more agents are being produced. Marking more for death with each passing moment. Yet still the world debates, it postures. It is largely indifferent.

Anti-semitism rises daily around us and especially in europe by muslims who support Saddam, Osama bin Laden and other mass murderers. Jews, old men women and children are beaten, stores defaced and looted, by young muslim men.

I am reminded again of another time - the heart of europe - Kristallnacht, November 9-10, 1938. Jewish families terrorized by SS brownshirts who were predominantly young and easily filled with hate. Yes, the SS took over - and the local police forces could do nothing but watch as the pogrom to eliminate Jews was embarked upon.

Thousands were rounded up and sent to concentration camps. Average Germans stayed in their homes, closed the curtains and did nothing. The world did nothing. It debated. It postured. It delayed.

The same rhetoric echoes through the decades to haunt us. "He's not a threat to us - let him be.", "He is the rightful leader - who are we to displace him.". "Yes, he is bad - but what replaces him?", "The jews had it coming - look at the way they treat their neighbors!"

Excuses all. Excuses for inaction, for posturing and for delays.

Now the europeans live in fear - of their own muslim communities - just as the average Germans lived in fear of the Nazi brownshirts who beat women senseless and burned numbers into arms without seemingly any restraint.

They speak harshly of war. They meekly denounce the hate-crimes against innocent jews - and many justify it by saying "the Jews deserved it."

My family suffered - not as much as many jewish families, to be certain - but By 1943 they were already homeless and had lost almost all their possessions except for what could fit into a bag - as had the jews 5 years before them.

They could not speak out against Hitler - for they did not live in a free society. They survived the war by working hard as farmhands earning their meals for a days work in the fields.

The Iraqis are reliving history, living in fear, unable to dissent and awaiting Saddam's henchmen to torture them to death on video for all Iraqis to see as a warning to others.

I can speak out against Saddam and Hitler. I live free and not in fear of brownshirts dragging me out of my home in the middle of the night in front of my family to empty a Luger in my temple.

"Do not make war on the Iraqi people." goes a familiar antiwar slogan. A familiar one was proffered for public consumption in 1938 in the US, "Do not make war on the German people.".

Yet in the end, the US did make war on Germany and the German people. For toppling Hitler was the goal and only war could do it.

Now we target Saddam and with every turn we make, the excuse-makers - the accomplices of terror and death - obstruct, delay and divide.

The ego of the UN leadership, the anti-semitic undertones of the EU, the politicians whose political fortunes depend upon opposing anything the present leadership supports, the world leaders whose only desire is to maintain their hold on the reins of power - all these are Saddam's unwitting accomplices.

"Do not bring further suffering to the Iraqi people!" goes another line of the familiar chorus.

If this is what is truly desired. The US and the world must act - and act now.

To do anything else, no matter how you may try to justify it in your mind or comfort yourself in those quiet moments, is to support terror, death, fear and the impending death of millions whose lives mean nothing to a monstrous megalomaniac.

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