The Wages of Appeasement

For conservatives the story of the recent National Intelligence Estimate is unbelievable. What would possess the analysts in the federal intelligence bureaucracy to issue a finding that Iran has abandoned its military nuclear weapons program? Given the secrecy that surrounds all government ventures into nuclear weaponry we wonder how anyone can presume to know with "high confidence" whether Iran or any other nation has or has not a nuclear weapons program. And why would anyone so blatantly try to appease a revolutionary regime like the Islamic Republic of Iran?

The answer is simpler than you might think. In the view of the western educated middle class, appeasement works every time it is tried. There is more. The policy of appeasement, consistently applied by the educated middle class throughout the past century, has proved to be the royal road to political power and influence -- for the educated middle class.

First they appeased the struggling working man, arguing that "people have needs." They built a welfare state and put themselves in charge. Then they moved American blacks, condemned to second-class citizenship by discrimination and racism, from the Southern plantation to the liberal plantation. Then it was traditionally marginalized women and gays. All the while establishing bureaucracies and programs administered by guess who? So it is not surprising that the western educated middle class believes that the way to deal with Muslims in general and Iran in particular is through appeasement.

It's easy to assume that all this NIE nonsense and literary name-calling is pure cynicism. But we should give our liberal friends the benefit of the doubt and allow that they actually believe that their policy of appeasing the enemies of the West is moral and just. There are people who really think that the problem is a deep "hostility to Islam and intolerance of otherness." (What about liberals, their deep hostility to Christianity and their intolerance of Christian otherness?)

But wait, you say! Islam is different. Its doctrine of jihad is completely different from the militant working class of 1845 or the African American rioters of 1965. These people want to take over the world! Maybe so. But you cannot expect your average progressive to abandon a political tactic that has worked so well for over a century on the say-so of a bunch of neocon theocrat bigots. Our liberal friends want a world free from injustice and otherness; they believe that the right and just thing to do is always to appease the latest group that declares itself a victim...

More here

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ELSEWHERE

Not so free speech in the Netherlands: "Threats of murder. Fears of riots and religious violence. Demands for censorship. Politicians in hiding, fearing for their lives. A government preparing for the worst. It's happening right now in a most unlikely place ... the Netherlands, once regarded as Europe's quietest and most stable nation. And it's all happening because of a 10-minute movie that hasn't even been made yet. It's the work of Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders, who calls his movie "a call to shake off the creeping tyranny of Islamicization." Wilders plans to present it to his country on television sometime next month. "People who watch the movie will see that the Koran is very much alive today, leading to the destruction of everything we in the Western world stand for, which is respect and tolerance," Wilders, the 41-year-old leader of the right-wing Party for Freedom, said in a telephone interview."

Leftist fear of Muslims unmasked: "Larry O'Donnell went on a tirade about Mitt Romney, Mormons and Joseph Smith on this past weekend's McLaughlin Group. So I had him on yesterday to discuss his Mormon problem: HH: Would you say the same things about Mohammed as you just said about Joseph Smith? LO'D: Oh, well, I'm afraid of what the.that's where I'm really afraid. I would like to criticize Islam much more than I do publicly, but I'm afraid for my life if I do. HH: Well, that's candid. LO'D: Mormons are the nicest people in the world. They're not going to ever. HH: So you can be bigoted towards Mormons, because they'll just send you a strudel. LO'D: They'll never take a shot at me. Those other people, I'm not going to say a word about them".

British PM to "negotiate" with Taliban: Gordon Brown will announce today that he intends to talk to the Taliban in a bid to end the war in Afghanistan. In a major shift in UK foreign policy the Prime Minister is expected to tell the Commons today that negotiation is the only way to bring peace to the war torn country. This year has been the deadliest in Afghanistan since the U.S. led invasion of 2001. Since January more than 6,200 people have been killed including 40 British soldiers. In all, 86 British soldiers have died during the campaign which was launched to crush Al Qaeda and the Taliban following the September 11 outrage in America." [Comment here]

Another hopeless British computer system: "Taxpayers face new fines from the European Commission over continued failings in the system to make "green" payments to English farmers. The National Audit Office reveals today that 292 million pounds has already been set aside by the Government to pay for cash penalties for late payments for the farm hand outs in 2005 and 2006. It calls for an updating of the Rural Payments Agency's computer systems.

Military Commanders Running Iran's "Civilian" Nuclear Program: "The idiocy of the NIE continues to reverberate through the media and blogs. Major points about the NIE include the fact it was not a consensus of the intel community and there are dissenters in the career analyst corps who disagree with the key finding of moderate confidence - like the conclusion Iran continues to suspend its weapon design program. It also attempts to play the same shell game all rogue states play by assuming any program labeled `civilian' cannot possibly be a cover for an illegals weapons program. Nah, how could that be? Apparently the Three Amigos Of State who pushed this propaganda act through did not have the intelligence (pun intended - most definitely) to know that the men running Iran's `civilian' nuclear program are all Commanders and leaders from Iran's military units"

The Collapse Of The FEC?: "The Washington Post is alarmed, George Will is ecstatic. Three recess appointments to the six member Federal Elections Commission board will expire when Congress adjourns. Senate Democrats placed a hold on the Republican (the other two are Democrats). The Republicans have responded by saying it is all three or none for confirmation. Will surveys the turmoil and pronounces it a good thing.... If this standoff persists until Congress adjourns, the three recess appointments will expire and the FEC will have just two members - a Republican vacancy has existed since April. If so, the commission will be prohibited from official actions, including the disbursement of funds for presidential candidates seeking taxpayer financing."

A History Of Lies: "Stuart Taylor Jr. from The National Journal has a handy-dandy history of the lies, distortions, misrepresentations and dissembling of Hillary Clinton throughout her White House years. Put together this way, it is extraordinary - and highlights the insanity of the Clinton Campaign trying to attack the integrity of other candidates."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and TELSTRA/BIGPOND.

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here and here.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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