"Mullings An American Cyber-Column
Senator Kerry and the ?A? Word
Rich Galen
Monday November 01, 2004
? Appease: [From Merriam-Webster?s Unabridged] ?To conciliate or buy off (a potential aggressor) by political or economic concessions usually at the sacrifice of principles.?
? Here is how most people will decide how to vote tomorrow:
o If they believe that the war in Iraq is totally and solely about Iraq then they will vote for Senator Kerry.
o If, on the other hand, they believe that Iraq is but one battleground in the worldwide war on terror, they will vote for the President.
? Senator Kerry is committed to the notion that terrorism can be contained by multi-lateral police actions. When he suggested that terrorism could be reduced to a nuisance level like gambling, organized crime, and prostitution he meant it. It sounded so dreadful that his allies in the media accused the Bush campaign of mischaracterizing what Kerry meant.
? Maybe so, but even if you don?t believe he was equating terrorism with prostitution, it was a window into how he believes terrorism should be dealt with.
? What Senator Kerry is talking about is nothing short of appeasement. He believes, as do many of his supporters here and abroad, that if President Bush would just have stopped the war on terror after cleaning the Taliban out of Afghanistan, and focused all the nation?s attention on finding Osama bin Laden all would be well.
? The French and the Germans certainly agree with him. They wanted to appease Saddam ? if he had remained in power they would STILL be appeasing Saddam ? by allowing the sanctions against him to lapse so they could grab a desert-ful of the Iraqi oil action.
? So what if Saddam had developed the technology to build weapons of mass destruction and had allowed those weapons to be delivered by al-Qaida. It?s a tough world out there.
? If al-Qaida bombs some trains in Madrid, so be it, it was Spain?s fault for providing troops. If the Spanish had appeased al-Qaida like the leaders of Old Europe did, they would have been spared, too.
? Kerry truly believes that the only allies who matter are the French and the Germans. The ?unilateral? approach he has attempted to pin on the President ignores the British and the Australians to name but two, plus the dozens and dozens of other nations who have contributed troops and other assets to anti-terrorist operations around the world.
? The French and German governments, for their part, have publicly stated that Kerry is on some form of medication if he believes they intend to provide troops to do anything other than strut around Western Europe looking impressive to, and impressively at, each other while they sit safely within their own borders.
? The tape that Osama Bin Laden released the other day was specifically designed to play into Kerry?s belief system: Stop attacking us and we will stop attacking you. Appease us and you will be safe.
? Decades ago the Saudis tried appeasement by making a pact with the devil ? the bad guys could operate FROM Saudi Arabia so long as they didn?t operate IN Saudi Arabia. The Saudis have learned what history always teaches us: Those whom you would attempt to appease, don?t stay appeased.
? As the old saying goes: You can rent peace through appeasement, but you can?t buy it. And, if that?s not an old saying, it should be.
? The Saudis are now aggressively working to root out terrorists ? an effort which has been much more intense since the arrival of the current US Ambassador to Riyadh, Jim Oberwetter.
? Senator Kerry sees terrorism as a police matter. Get enough Interpol people on the case and we?ll catch these guys.
? Maybe, but Interpol is much more effective if there are a couple of Divisions teed up to help them out. The French and the Germans have demonstrated they have no interest in providing any part of those Divisions, so Senator Kerry will have no choice but to make the best deal he can, dealing from weakness, with an enemy which feeds on weakness.
? There is a reason the appeasers and those who are eager to be appeased are so fervent in their desire to see Senator Kerry elected. George Bush has been strong, is strong, and will continue to be strong in the world wide war on terror. "