The Lair
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Adolf Hitler was a rising star in the world with a country to rule, more countries to conquer and only the Western democracies to oppose him. Exuding honesty and sincerity, some of his greatest speeches were made on peace, and the world believed that here was finally a leader that could be trusted. Using military threat and personal aggression, he overthrew the Austrian government and then he said to the world, I am done, this is all I wanted, I have no ambition to go further. He cast his eyes to Czechoslovakia and proceeded to break that country down as well. He said then, give me this country and that will be all, I promise you that I will have everything I want and will take no more steps outside these borders. So the leaders of the Western democracies, who were wise and greathearted, gave the pleading Czechoslovakia to him on their own silver platter. Hitler, confident and with nothing but contempt for these weak, babbling fools led by Chamberlain, said then, Poland is my dream, I must have Poland too and then I will be done. And the leaders of the West looked at each other warily and said with a great deal of uncertainty, but we have treaties with Poland. This battle of words raged on, with little Poland being crushed in the middle, while France and England did their utmost to wriggle out of their binding treaties to give support. There were many empty warnings to Hitler, too many offers of peace on any terms. This is what led to World War II. It was a disastrous fiasco from the very beginning. Hitler could easily have been stopped, millions of people could easily have been saved unimaginable suffering, and freedom could easily have prevailed- if Chamberlain had simply learned how to say ‘no’.
We have seen incredible feats of courage in our time, and we have also seen acts of weakness and fear. If Lincoln had been for ‘peace at any price’ during the War Between the States, the horrors of slavery would likely still exist, despite the fact that the freeing of slaves was not on his agenda. In the end, England finally decided to firmly oppose Hitler, but this decision came under Churchill’s guidance and only after Chamberlain had already done so much irreparable damage in his own selfish images of peace that it could almost be said that England provoked World War II by not stopping it when she had the power to do so. Munich was only one of many times that England, aided by France and America, fed Hitler’s appetite and played the exact card tricks he desired.
The name of this game is appeasement. A policy of appeasement is a prescription for guaranteed failure. There is no gray area, no in-between. Appeasement works only when both sides have good intentions, and in a scenario such as that, it is not needed. Stated in another way, appeasement simply never works.
Bill Clinton’s presidency has been marred by political and social scandals. He is longing to have the illusion of a good reputation, and in his personal greed he has sacrificed the American people he is sworn to protect. When Taiwan declared that they would follow a path of democracy and independence, their ally America did not welcome them with a warm embrace. We did not support them. We have made rudimentary gestures only; we gave them equipment they already had, weapons they could not use, devices that were just useless. Instead we cowered in front of communist China, and said, here, take this little island, it is not important to us, we will stand by and watch as you make the paramount effort to destroy it. Everywhere America has tread and left footprints over the past few years, we left behind traces of the fallacy of appeasement. This scent has grown stronger, and it will soon lead us into a cave that we will not be able to escape from.
We tell our children, stand up for yourselves, never let anyone else control your will by fear or threats or intimidation. We admire Benjamin Franklin, who said ‘step lightly and carry a big stick’. Yet we have stood by passively as our government swiftly disbands our military defenses and opens our gates to people of more malicious intent. Our proud declarations of liberty and justice are echoes of the past- or they must be, since so few of us seem to hear them anymore. Chamberlain brought shame to England. Clinton continues to bring greater shame to America. Are we willing to lose Taiwan through our lust to appease? Are we willing to lose ourselves?
