In 2016, Fascism was searched on the Merriam-Webster dictionary website more often than any other word in English except surreal, which experienced a sudden spike after the November presidential election.
Historian Robert Paxton begins one of his books by asserting: Fascism was the major political innovation of the twentieth century, and the source of much of its pain.
Fascism did not die with Mussolini, he warned. Hitler is finished, but the seeds spread by his disordered mind have firm root in too many fanatical brains.
For the DPRK and its military, the ouster of Saddam Hussein conveyed a powerful message: it’s not enough to pretend to have weapons of mass destruction. To be secure, a nation must build them, own them, and hide them.
Good guys don’t always win, especially when they are divided and less determined than their adversaries. The desire for liberty may be ingrained in every human breast, but so is the potential for complacency, confusion, and cowardice. And losing has a price.
