Who Gave Them the Money? Lenin, Hitler and Boko Haram

Have you ever read a biography of a famous historical figure, like Hitler, and wondered, “Wait a minute, where did a starving artist get the money to start a political party?” I’m a starving artist and I don’t have the money to start a political party-do you?

Uniforms, pamphlets, flags and weapons all cost money. How did Hilter go from barely having enough food to eat to equipping his goose-steppers?

Biographers usually just skip right over this important point. But c’mon-somebody gave Hitler the money.

Boko Haram of Nigeria has been getting a lot of press lately for stealing young girls and blithely announcing that they are for sale as wives. This, along with their truly nasty terror attacks on civilians, causes outrage and demands to invade Nigeria, take them out and save those girls.

Sadly, the child-stealing practice is not uncommon and has been going on in Sudan for some time. But my question, as I look at photos of Boko Haram, who are supposed to be the poorest of Nigeria’s poor: Where did they get the money for their uniforms and weapons? C’mon-somebody is giving Boko Haram the money.

I just finished reading Autopsy for an Empire, about the seven Communist leaders of the USSR from Lenin to Gorbachev. Normally, biographies of revolutionaries just jump from: Young revolutionary is in jail or on the run, never actually working a day in his life, but now here he is living in a Swiss chateau writing pamphlets and preaching revolution.

Gee, I’d like to live in a Swiss chateau and write pamphlets-but I don’t have the money. Do you? Somebody gave Lenin the money.

I suggest that knowing who gave Hitler, Boko Haram and Lenin the money is extremely important. Without that money, they’d just be disgruntled bums griping about the wicked Jews, bourgeois or infidels.

In case you’re wondering, Wall Street funded Hitler, the German government funded Lenin and Boko Haram funds trace back to Saudi Arabia.

So when you see ISIS (the killers formerly know as “good al Quaeda”) in their matching uniforms and Kevlar vests, riding in new pickup trucks loaded down with expensive weapons–ask yourself-who is giving them the money?