Yet another controversy has engulfed Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, who, at a Friday press conference, compared his efforts to rid his country of drugs to Adolf Hitler’s efforts to rid Europe of Jews. Now, you might be thinking, surely the media took his comments out of context. So let’s see exactly what he said.
Hitler comparisons are never good. Hey, say what you want about the Führer, but he was great on infrastructure! But for Duterte, sadly, this is mere grist for the mill. He already cursed out President Barack Obama and has been threatening to kick out U.S. counterterrorism forces from the south. In addition, he has apparently upped his game: Not only is he after the drugs and the drug dealers, but he is now going to kill the addicts. (He was also off by three million Jews, but this suited his comparison to his country’s three million addicts, if those numbers are accurate.)
If Duterte keeps up this behavior, and if he continues not only to push for ending the joint exercises with the United States but also flirting with “open alliances” with Russia and China, the military might once again have to intervene—yes, the dreaded “c-word”! And then he’ll have to retreat to some underground bunker like you-know-who.
