Bush Speaks Truth of Appeasement in Israel

And Democrats are outraged!

You can usually tell when President Bush hits the bullseye of truth. Democrats erupt into childish fits. They don't like it when the President points out how little they have learned from the lessons of history and how dangerously misguided liberal policies are.

When President Bush told the Israeli Knesset "Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along," Obama and friends went into attack mode.

Obama made a statement stressing the need for tough diplomacy (talk). Nancy Pelosi (whose visit to Syria a year ago encouraged the current killings by Hezbollah in Lebanon) said that President Bush's remarks were "beneath the dignity of the office." This is the same woman whose sense of dignity permits Code Pink circus freaks to run wild through the halls of Congress.
Senator Joe Biden (D-DE), demonstrating the dignity of his office called President Bush's remarks "bullshit."

Here are President Bush's remarks in context:

Excerpt from:
President Bush Addresses Members of the Knesset
The Knesset
Jerusalem
White House transcript
May 15, 2008

...The fight against terror and extremism is the defining challenge of our time. It is more than a clash of arms. It is a clash of visions, a great ideological struggle. On the one side are those who defend the ideals of justice and dignity with the power of reason and truth. On the other side are those who pursue a narrow vision of cruelty and control by committing murder, inciting fear, and spreading lies.

This struggle is waged with the technology of the 21st century, but at its core it is an ancient battle between good and evil. The killers claim the mantle of Islam, but they are not religious men. No one who prays to the God of Abraham could strap a suicide vest to an innocent child, or blow up guiltless guests at a Passover Seder, or fly planes into office buildings filled with unsuspecting workers. In truth, the men who carry out these savage acts serve no higher goal than their own desire for power. They accept no God before themselves. And they reserve a special hatred for the most ardent defenders of liberty, including Americans and Israelis.

And that is why the founding charter of Hamas calls for the "elimination" of Israel. And that is why the followers of Hezbollah chant "Death to Israel, Death to America!" That is why Osama bin Laden teaches that "the killing of Jews and Americans is one of the biggest duties." And that is why the President of Iran dreams of returning the Middle East to the Middle Ages and calls for Israel to be wiped off the map.

There are good and decent people who cannot fathom the darkness in these men and try to explain away their words. It's natural, but it is deadly wrong. As witnesses to evil in the past, we carry a solemn responsibility to take these words seriously. Jews and Americans have seen the consequences of disregarding the words of leaders who espouse hatred. And that is a mistake the world must not repeat in the 21st century.

Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: "Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided." We have an obligation to call this what it is -- the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history. (Applause.)

We don't need to go back to the Second World War to find that appeasement fails. The Middle East is littered with examples. Obama criticized Bush, while praising President Reagan's "tough, principled, and direct diplomacy - to pressure countries like Iran and Syria." I'm currently reading former Reagan Secretary of State George Shultz's memoir "Turmoil and Triumph" (it's only 68 cents at Amazon, even Democrats bitter over their economic circumstances can afford it). Again and again Secretary Shultz describes how progress in the Middle East was undermined by attitudes of appeasement and weakness expressed by the usual withdrawal and surrender crowd in the United States.

Shultz makes it clear that our failure in the Middle East resulted from a policy that perverted Teddy Roosevelt's "speak softly and carry a big stick" to "speak softly and tie the big stick behind your back."

Currently in Lebanon, Hezbollah is running rampant at the direction of and with funding, training and arms supplied by Syria and Iran. You might not have heard about the conflict with many many innocents killed because the media which focused almost exclusively on Hezbollah casualties when Israel defended itself two years ago isn't interested when Hezbollah is killing Lebanese.

Since Israel pulled out of Lebanon after being attacked, the United Nations was supposed to step in and address the danger of armed Hezbollah militias. Yet, nothing was done. Nothing but talk. Nothing but appeasement.

Clearly, President Bush's speech in Israel has the ring of truth. We've all seen it with our own eyes for decades. To borrow a Reagansim: Peace does not come without strength and the will to use it. There is no question that Democrats do not understand the benefits of a strong military with the will to use it to advance the cause of peace. The consequence of their appeasement is the very death and war they claim to wish to prevent.