Feeding the crocodile-world recognized Nazi peril slowly, Islamo-fascism similar danger

Jewish World Review ^ | 9-7-06 | Suzanne Fields

[SJackson]

Those who assisted the Nazi rise to power held diverse views and were motivated by different influences, both inside and outside Germany, and the rest of the world recognized the peril of Nazism only slowly and reluctantly. Islamo-fascism poses a similar danger for us now.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who likes historical analogies, compares the appeasers of Germany in the run-up to World War II to his critics who stubbornly refuse to see in full the terrorists who want to destroy the civilized way of life, and us along with it.

The 1930s were "a time when a certain cynicism and moral confusion set in among the Western democracies." Men and women who should have known better refused to see what was writ large and plain before their eyes, and what Winston Churchill meant when he said that accommodating Hitler was "a bit like feeding a crocodile, hoping it would eat you last." The analogy to modern appeasement is not exact, but the faint-hearted who demand a quick withdrawal from Iraq are trying to appease a hungry crocodile. The French, as the Germans of the Weimar Republic had before them, wore blinkers looking at the crocodile. Those most blinded to the evil threat of Hitler were exactly those with the most to lose.

[SJackson]

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[Bahbah]

The analogy to modern appeasement is not exact, but the faint-hearted who demand a quick withdrawal from Iraq are trying to appease a hungry crocodile.

We are as well trying to appease the Iranians with the carrot approach to nuclear development. I haven't seen any sticks to speak of. No one here needs reminding how well this worked with N. Korea.

[woollyone]

“First they came for the Communists but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out;
Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists but I was not one of them, so I did not speak out;
Then they came for the Jews but I was not Jewish so I did not speak out.
And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.”
Martin Niemoller, 1892-1984

[Biggirl]

The reason for this slow response is FEAR of causing a violent reacation from the different Muslim communities.