One of my favorite arguments in the run-up to the Iraq war was that those who didn't think we should invade Iraq immediately were somehow appeasing Iraq (an argument that Walter Williams returns to today, which triggered this column). They would pull out the "low, dishonest decade" and talk about what made Chamberlain think he could appease Hitler. Appeasement has since been such a dirty word that they probably were very happy to find an excuse to use it against their political enemies. And, to a certain extent, the tactic worked. President Bush got his Iraqi War Resolution, and the critics of the war were, for the most part, shunted off to the side. They've made a comeback since then.
But returning to Appeasement. Appeasement in the 1930s meant giving Germany large stretches of Czechoslovakia in order to keep him from taking more. Appeasement in the 2000's means not immediately invading your enemy. That's quite a slope isn't it? What will appeasement be in 2070?
Good ol' Walter Williams, not satisfied with repeating an argument from 2002-3, also feels the need to bring back a smear from a few weeks ago. The "sensitive" smear. But we've been through that enough times, I won't inflict that on you again.
No comments:
Post a Comment