February 9, 2003: Dear Mr. Fischer:
It is not without a certain amount of irony that I take notice of your remarks at the International Security Conference held in Munich yesterday (Saturday, February 8, 2003) in which you castigated the stance of US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (and by extension that of the United States in general and her allies such as Britain, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Denmark, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, The Czech Republic, Slovakia, and the Baltic States). The irony stems from the fact that your attempts at appeasing the genocidal Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein took place in Munich, a city best known as the site of another appeasement of a genocidal dictator.
Indeed, as I am sure you are well aware, just 65 years ago the Munich Agreement signed at the Fuehrerbau (the present Hochschule fuer Musik und Theater) paved the way for the German takeover of Czechoslovakia and convinced Adolf Hitler that the West would do nothing to stop Germany's plan for world conquest.
The pusillanimity of the West emboldened Germany's sick designs on the world. One of the lessons that we in the West have learned is that appeasement in the face of evil breeds yet more evil. Strength of purpose and the will to use force without a moment's hesitation are the only things that prevent the world from falling into an abyss similar to -- and I hate to bring up a sore point -- Germany of the 12-year period of the 1000-Year Reich.
Herr Fischer, I urge you, before you leave Munich, to take a walk down Brienner Strasse past the site of the Braune Haus (the Headquarters of the Nazi Party) and then proceed down Arcistrasse past the old Fuehrerbau. Consider the great evil that was planned here, the monstrous crimes that your countrymen perpetrated upon the rest of the world. Gaze upon the Fascist architecture of the Koenigsplatz and envision what the world would be like if America and her Allies had not taken up arms against your country.
Then, Herr Fischer, I would ask you to drive northwest to Dachau and contemplate the killing fields of that Munich suburb.
And then, I would ask you to contemplate how many of the millions of innocent people your countrymen butchered would be alive today if someone had had the temerity to stop Germany in her tracks before she had been able to assemble her armies of conquest and annihilation.
Evil, like cancer, is best eliminated if it is excised from the body when it is first detected.
And finally, Herr Fischer, I find it curious that you question America's staying power, its ability and determination to withstand what you contemplate might be a decades-long occupation of Iraq. How ironic it is that you have forgotten America's long experience in the occupation of evil regimes. The most obvious example is that of Germany. America has maintained a consistent military presence in Germany since the original occupation of 1945. We know very well how to deal with regimes of monstrous evil. Your country provided us with ample opportunities to hone our talents with regard to such.
Indeed, the Germany of the Third Reich was by far a much more reprehensible regime than Saddam's Iraq. While Saddam's power only extends to the ruling elite and the upper echelons of the Ba'ath Party, Adolf Hitler was beloved by the vast majority of Germans, right up until the very end of his regime (the protestations of the revisionists notwithstanding).
Not to worry, Herr Fischer. America has the will and the knowledge to deal with regimes of radical evil. Germany has taught us well.
And Herr Fischer, a million more weapons inspectors will not change the course of Saddam's regime.......................