The Fruits of Appeasement (Long, but a MUST READ)

Imagine a different November 4, 1979, in Teheran. Shortly after Iranian terrorists ,,,take some 90 American hostages, President Jimmy Carter … issues an ultimatum to Teheran’s leaders: Release the captives or face a devastating military response…

I remember at the time my father yelling at the TV screen “Call in an air strike!” “Would one be enough, Dad?” “Then keep bombing them every day they keep the hostages!” He went on to say, that we should blockade them also. Government-sanctioned abuse of diplomatic personnel is an act of war and against international law. As far as I know, the UN had no criticism of this. When the ‘students’ took the hostages, the mullahs distanced themselves at first. They quickly saw how they got the spotlight and exploited this political opportunity.

The fall of the Soviet Union enhanced… liberation fields of study by immunizing their promulgators from charges of… being dupes of Russian expansionism. … freed these trendy ideologies from having to … alternative… they could happily remain entirely critical, sarcastic, and cynical without any obligation to suggest something better…

When it became clear to the Left that THEIR ideology had failed, they then declared that ALL political theorization was invalid and said we should be ‘pragmatic.’ This means in practice that there are no guidelines. Instead we should operate reactively, on the range-of-the-moment.

Of course, the Left still has not abandoned Marxist ideology. They still embrace its fundamental tenets, they just don’t talk about it in public anymore.

we would have seen it all in 1979—and not in 2001

didn't read the whole thing- but it occurs to me that one HUGE difference bewteen then and now was the unfavorable (IIRC) balance of power between the US and the USSR.

whether or not the disparity was real...it was (IIRC) a real consideration for the military planners at the time. Both in terms of conventional & nuclear weapons.

A full blown attack on iran would have been seen as a reckless gamble with unforeseeable, possibly disastrous consequences.

I wonder if 14 years of unopposed super-powerdom have colored the lenses the authors use when looking at the past.

[This 25th Anniversary Year Of Khomeinism

As Jimmy Carter also proved in November 1979, one man really can make a difference.

But don't expect any sober discussion of these contentions from the Left. Their gloom and doom about Iraq arises precisely from the anti-Americanism and romanticization of the Third World that once led to our appeasement and now seeks its return. When John Kerry talks of mysterious prominent Europeans he has met (but whose names he will not divulge) who, he says, pray for his election in hopes of ending George Bush's Iraqi nightmare, perhaps he has in mind people like the Chamberlainesque European Commission president Romano Prodi, who said in the wake of the recent mass murder in Spain: Clearly, the conflict with the terrorists is not resolved with force alone. Perhaps he has in mind, also, the Spanish electorate, which believes it can find security from al-Qaida terrorism by refuting all its past support for America's role in the Middle East. But of course if the terrorists understand that, in lieu of resolve, they will find such appeasement a mere 48 hours after a terrorist attack, then all previously resolute Western democracies, Italy, Poland, Britain, and the United States should expect the terrorists to murder their citizens on the election eve in hopes of achieving just such a Spanish-style capitulation.

In contrast, George W. Bush, impervious to such self-deception, has, in a mere two and a half years, reversed the perilous course of a quarter-century. Since September 11, he has removed the Taliban and Saddam Hussein, begun to challenge the Middle East through support for consensual government, isolated Yasser Arafat, pressured the Europeans on everything from anti-Semitism to their largesse to Hamas, removed American troops from Saudi Arabia, shut down fascistic Islamic charities, scattered al-Qaida, turned Pakistan from a de facto foe to a scrutinized neutral, rounded up terrorists in the United States, pressured Libya, Iran, and Pakistan to come clean on clandestine nuclear cheating, so far avoided another September 11 and promises that he is not nearly done yet. If the Spanish example presages further terrorist attacks on European democracies at election time, at least Mr. Bush has made it clear that America alone if need be will neither appease nor ignore such killers but in fact finish the terrible war that they started.

As Jimmy Carter also proved in November 1979, one man really can make a difference. ]

A brilliant contrast between Carter and Bush ~ Toni

The mullahs in Iran are next. Not if the liberal New Class has anything to say about it. They're in full ululation mode, trying to shove the country's nose into the carpet and "cure" us of our support for President Bush. Bad dog! Bad dog! NEVER vote Republican again!

All too true. Funny and sad simultaneously, as I imagine Couric or Koppel in full ululation. Our media seems eager and excited in a wierd way about making (or trying to) us look bad in the eyes of the world. Luckily, they are grooming a Dem - doesn't matter who, as long as it's a Lib - to 'save' us from this evil. Lucky us.

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