Buchanan is right. Way too far right.

Following up on Fixer's post from yesterday, from TPM Muckraker:

According to Buchanan, Hitler's invasion of Poland -- which led to Britain's declaration of war on Germany, and the start of World War II -- was motivated merely by Germany's desire to regain the city of Danzig, which had been given to Poland in the Versailles Treaty. Had Poland simply negotiated with Hitler, war could have been averted. In fact, Hitler wasn't bent on world, or even European, domination. He would have been happy with just Danzig, Austria, and the Sudetenland, you see. Hitler "wanted to end the war in 1940, almost two years before the trains began to roll to the camps." It was only thanks to the aggression of Britain, Russia, and the U.S. that the conflict was expanded. So, goes the implication, any deaths that occurred after 1940 -- including the 6 million that comprised the Holocaust -- are on the Allies' heads.

In fact, the column is just a bite-size version of an argument Buchanan made last year in book form. (Really, it's a chance to tout the book.)

It's not shocking that Hitler apologists exist. And this is hardly the first time we've seen evidence that Buchanan is one of them. But it boggles the mind that a person who believes this has been given such a prominent media platform, such that his writing appears on one of the web's most highly-trafficked news site, and he himself appears regularly on a major -- and supposedly liberal-leaning! -- cable news station.

The very first commenter appears to have been clawing around in my head and nails it dead nuts:

Hitler did not want war in the same way that Buchanan and the modern GOP do not want bipartisan conflict. It is much preferable for your adversaries to give you everything you want without condition or hesitation. When your adversaries do not immediately surrender and become your mindless servants, they force you into the tragic choice of conflict. All blame for the conflict -- and for the shameful and immoral way in which you conduct yourself during that conflict -- is theirs, not yours. - CN

Yeah, WWII was all Europe's fault for not handing itself over to him. And so should those damn commie Dems. Yeesh.

Many more comments.