IWA For Sunday 051808

Appeasement good? Support Terrorists? Idiot

Hey folks,

It's Friday, time to award the Idiot of the Week. This week, once again appears in the Huffy Post. {Huffington Post} It's By Lionel Beehner The Case for 'Appeasement'
Fri May 16, 11:56 AM ET

The storm over President Bush's "appeasement" remarks in Israel misses the point. No, we should not appease, engage, or give shoulder rubs to Islamist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah. But wishing they would go away, while arming their enemies has gotten us nowhere.

Actually it has, but we will not let facts get in the way. Not to mention Reagan did not appease Gorbachev, the USSR fell. Then on June 6, 2004

“I take very hard the death of Ronald Reagan, a man whom by fate sat with me in perhaps the most difficult years at the end of the 20th century,” Gorbachev told reporters at the Gorbachev Foundation, a non-governmental analytical institute that he has run since 1992.

Those were years, Gorbachev said, “when everyone felt that we lived under the threat of nuclear conflict.”

Mr. Beehner continues:

Plus, haven't we, to some degree, appeased disgruntled Sunnis in what was known as the Sunni triangle? Hasn't our Neville Chamberlain-like approach worked there, with varying degrees of success? When Robert Gates talks about sitting down with his Iranian counterparts, isn't that appeasement -- assuming at least that negotiation is meant to make the other side less mad at you?

No. We are not negotiating anything with them. Mr. Beehner's nativity on this is striking. Or he is just not being honest here.

I would take it one step further. Rather than just sit down and say hello to these chaps we don't like in the region, I say we should outright support them.

Yup. Support those that want us dead. {Laughing} It's not those chaps we do not like, it is those that HATE us, and want us dead. That would include you by the way.

Say what? Yes, by railing against these groups, Palestinians and Lebanese voters are probably thinking: If Americans are against them, by golly they must be doing something right. After all, Americans were for Fatah, and look how corrupt that organization turned out to be! Ditto President Musharraf. Our support for President Maliki in Iraq has not exactly helped his standing among everyday Iraqis. Maybe if we start backing Moqtada al-Sadr, the ranks of the Mahdi Army would begin to thin out.

{Sigh}

Let's face it: The United States still has some leverage to influence things in the Muslim world, but it's the opposite kind of leverage you might expect. A U.S. endorsement of a political party is the kiss of death. We are like Al Gore and the cover of Sports Illustrated wrapped into one -- our support means instant failure. That is why no Iranian NGO dares accept money (at least not through third channels) from the U.S. State Department -- it's seen as tainted. And it is. We have a regime-change agenda in that country.

Again. Clueless. But he really does not care either.

Of course, were the United States to start blindly supporting radical Islamist groups, some might catch on. Secularists and moderates might feel alienated and left to wonder: What gives? Or, suddenly there would be this surge of pro-Americanism in that part of the world and we'd be left with parties in power we can't stand and Israel would probably disown us.

No they would bide time until they can attack us again.

I throw this suggestion out there not as a serious one but just to highlight the bind American policymakers are in. To blindly rail against your enemies, or lump them all in the same bag of Osama bin Laden-like evildoers, is moronic and bad policy. Obama is right to want to engage -- and dare I say -- appease some elements within these groups. But if he really wanted to screw them, he would outright endorse them.

Congratulations Mr. Beehner, I know you are most likely just trying to be funny, or just attacking Bush, or, eh, it just doesn't matter. You ARE the Idiot of the Week. Attempting to defend the indefensible is never a good idea. To make statements such as support or appease those that want NOTHING from you except you to stop breathing is completely idiotic.
Peter

Sources:
Huffy Post - The Case for 'Appeasement'
MSNBC - Gorbachev calls Reagan ‘a great president’