- This excellent piece puts into words some of what I’ve been thinking the last months:
- It is easy to damn the 1930s appeasers of Hitler — such as Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain in England and Edouard Daladier in France — given what the Nazis ultimately did when unleashed. But history demands not merely recognizing the truth post facto, but also trying to reconstruct the rationale of something that now in hindsight seems inexplicable.
- Appeasement in the 1930s was popular with the European public for a variety of reasons. All of them are instructive in our hesitation about stopping . . . .
- In response, either the West will continue to stand up now to these reoccurring post-Sept. 11 threats, or it will see the bullies’ demands only increase as its own resistance weakens. Like the appeasement of the 1930s, opting for the easier choice will only guarantee a more costly one later on.
- Appeasement in the 1930s was popular with the European public for a variety of reasons. All of them are instructive in our hesitation about stopping . . . .
I believe the world is morally and socially weaker now than it was 60 years ago. By far.
Is it too late to ask God to show mercy?