Submitted by orange yonason(United States), Jun 11, 2008 at 13:37
B"H
John Ray has put together some material that maps out many of the connections. See here, and here.
And, yes, Stefan Patejak, there is an element of truth to what you are saying in your "few questions." Very astute observation! But it's not like infighting among those with a similar ideology is a unique phenomenon in history, is it? Napoleon was an emperor as was the Czar, but Napoleon attacked him despite the fact that they could both be seen as having the same ideology, Imperialism.
So, what we can conclude is that the shared ideology of "Liberalism" is not a unifying force at all, despite what so many on the Left want us to believe. In fact, I would submit it isn't an ideology at all, but a semantic con game that holds a mirror up for people to see whatever they want in it, while representing nothing of substance itself. That is the "magic" of Barack Hussein Obama, that he is able to get people to believe he represents them, when all he "stands" for is himself.
Conservatism, on the other does attempt to define and hold fast to specific moral values that are shared by it's supporters. Hence it is only "divisive" to those for whom those values are alien. But since no ideology can unite everyone, any that pretends to (like liberalism, or fascism, or communism, or nazism, or socialism) is a fraud, and will collapse as soon as whatever self-interest or fantasy it is based on ceases to exist. While Conservatism divides between those with shared values and those without, Leftism divides everyone, because the latter is based on the selfishness of materialism and control of others.
And that's why, despite the fact that the leaders of the countries you refer to were Leftists, they could fight other Leftists, even though they may have shared the same nefarious goals [I don't subscribe to all the author's conclusions elsewhere in his writings, but his historical facts appear to be in order].
Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened for relevance, substance, and tone, and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome, but comments are rejected if scurrilous, off-topic, vulgar, ad hominem, or otherwise viewed as inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the Guidelines for Comments. For informational purposes, we identify countries from which comments are sent.