Protesters and appeasers with blood on their hands

Los Angeles Times ^ | February 27, 2003 | Max Boot

[Martus]

Protesters With Bloody Hands

Historically, peace demands have led to more killing.

The signs, ranging from the offensive ("Bush and Blair Wanted for Murder") to the wacky ("Make Tea Not War"), have no doubt been consigned to the proper recycling bins. But the corrosive effect of the worldwide antiwar rallies of Feb. 15 lingers.

Saddam Hussein's mouthpiece, the newspaper Babel, which is run by his son, Uday, has praised the demonstrators for inflicting "humiliating international isolation" on Britain and the United States and for ushering in "a new chapter in the global balance of power." Seeing that his enemies are divided, Hussein has continued to not fully cooperate with U.N. weapons inspectors. In his defiant interview with Dan Rather, he even sneered at the United Nation's demand that he destroy his Al-Samoud 2 missiles.

The demonstrations are thereby making war more -- not less -- likely.

All this should be no great surprise, considering the ignominious history of peace protests over the last century. The record is fairly clear: When the demands of protesters have been met, more bloodshed has resulted; when strong leaders have resisted the lure of appeasement, peace has usually broken out.

Antiwar movements during the Civil War and the Philippine War of 1899-1902 helped prolong those conflicts by giving false hope to Washington's enemies.

The vociferous opposition of Irish Americans and German Americans, trade unionists and socialists helped delay U.S. entry into World War I and thereby prolonged the killing. If the advice of hawks like former President Theodore Roosevelt had been heeded, earlier U.S. entry would have shortened the slaughter and created a more stable postwar order.

During the inter-war period, public pressure in the West prevented rearmament despite growing threats from the original "Axis of evil."

In 1933, the Oxford Union passed its infamous resolution: "That this House refuses in any circumstances to fight for King and Country." When Neville Chamberlain returned from Munich in 1938, declaring that he had delivered "peace for our time," he was greeted by cheering throngs who sang "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow." Across the Atlantic, the America First Committee mobilized more than 800,000 people to keep the U.S. out of the war.

As we now know, the weakness of the West encouraged Hitler, Tojo and Mussolini toward more spectacular aggression, making World War II inevitable. It is doubtful that even the most hardened peace protesters today would look back with pride upon the activities of their 1930s' predecessors.

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