President George W. Bush Condemns Appeasement

In a recent speech before the Israeli Knesset, President George W. Bush came out against appeasement. Various Democrats, from Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, were outraged.

Here are the offending words: "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. We have heard this foolish delusion before As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of 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."

Even though the only person referred to in the remarks was a dead Republican Senator, William Borah, Democrats leaped the length of their chains.

Barack Obama was first. "George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists, and the president's extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel."

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was even more direct. "We have a protocol, sort of a custom, informally around here that we don't criticize the president when he is on foreign soil. One would think that that would apply to the president that he would not criticize Americans when he is on foreign soil. I think what the president said in that regard is beneath the dignity of the office of the president and unworthy of our representation at that observance in Israel."

Senator Joe Biden, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, responded with an obscenity.

Republicans were delighted at the President's forthright condemnation of appeasement and the Democrats' sharp response to it. Senator John McCain, who is running for President, took note that his rival, Senator Barack Obama, has promised to meet with various dictators, many of whom are sponsors of terrorism, without preconditions.