Appeasement
By Rich Galen
Friday, July 7, 2006
Enroute Home
From the BBC's Timeline on North Korea:
1994 - North Korea agrees to freeze nuclear programme in return for $5bn worth of free fuel and two nuclear reactors.
2003 - Pyongyang claims that it has produced enough plutonium to start making nuclear bombs.
From Neville Chamberlain's speech in October 1938 after signing the Munich Agreement which gave Hitler the Sudetanland in return for his promise not to take any more territory:
We are resolved that the method of consultation shall be the method adopted to deal with any other questions that may concern our two countries, and … thus to contribute to assure the peace of Europe.
From PBS' Newshour with Jim Lehrer, October 30, 2000. Lehrer asks Secretary of State Madeline Albright, who has just returned from a visit with North Korea's Kim Jong-il to discuss the growing threat of offensive missiles, what she found out:
Well, he's basically prepared to look at some kind of an exchange in terms of this idea that he actually originally had raised with [Russian] President Putin about if we would launch some peaceful satellites for him instead. But he basically, I think, is prepared to take some important steps.
From the BBC's "On This Day" website for September 1:
1939: Germany invades Poland; German forces have invaded Poland and its planes have bombed Polish cities, including the capital, Warsaw.
From the LA Times, Wednesday, July 5, 2006:
Defying broad international pressure, North Korea test-fired at least six missiles into the Sea of Japan today, including a long-range Taepodong 2 that has been the focus of tension because of its purported ability to reach U.S. territory.
Chamberlain 1938: I believe it is peace for our time.
Albright 2000: Kim Jong-il is "prepared to take some important steps."
January 29, 2002: George W. Bush in the State of the Union address North Korea, Iran, and Iraq, "constitute an axis of evil."
Albright, quoted by the BBC, "called Mr. Bush's comments 'a big mistake'".
If we've learned anything over the past century it is this: You cannot make a deal with a madman.
You can make a deal with a madman but you can't then feign surprise or disappointment when the madman pays no attention to the deal you believed you had cut.
Madmen, in history, have had some trouble grasping the underlying meaning of deliberations, agreements, and communiqués.
Leaving Hitler with his army in 1938 was like leaving a tiger in a cage with a lamb. Leaving Jong-il with his missiles was like leaving Hitler with his army.
If they have them. They are going to use them.
Reuters reported Wednesday that Venezuela President Hugo Chavez showed off the "Russian fighter jets his government is planning to buy…"
If he has them. He's going to use them.
Iran and nuclear weapons? Same thing.
We are now just about four months away from the mid-term elections in the US. Every politician running for office will be attempting to calibrate a response to these events.
Listen carefully to the Members of Congress and Senators running in your area. History has proven that politicians who clamor for appeasement are, sooner or later, proven wrong.
And the cost of their mistakes is, always much, much higher than the price they were trying to avoid in the first place.
On the Secret Decoder Ring Page today: Links to the BBC, PBS, and the LA Times; a Mullfoto-Traveler's-Tip; and a Catchy Caption of the Day.
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