THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume IV, Issue # 118, October 9, 2002
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
APPEASEMENT OF AN AGGRESSOR:
KOFI ANNAN OR NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN?
By John Campbell
It would be a cliché to draw comparisons between Neville Chamberlain's "Peace in Our Time" statement in September, 1938, and Kofi Annan's statement on September 16, 2002, after his receipt of a letter from Iraq.
The self-satisfaction on Kofi Annan's face was certainly reminiscent of Chamberlain.
I almost expected Annan to repeat Chamberlain's words outside 10 Downing Street on the evening of September 30, 1938: "go home and get a nice quiet sleep."
But as Winston Churchill warned in the House of Commons on the October 5, 1938, "..the people should know that we have sustained a defeat without a war, the consequences of which will travel far with us along our road," and that the Western democracies had been "weighed in the balance and found wanting."
Less than one year later, the nations of the world were plunged into World War II.
President George W. Bush, by being persuaded, or. more troubling, having himself decided, to go to the United Nations, has made a mistake of such magnitude that I fear it will redefine international relations, dilute support for the War on Terror, and endanger world peace.
For all the respect I have for the President, and the hope he brought after the hedonistic days of Bill Clinton, he simply walked into a trap. And, as Churchill would have said, "the people should know that we have sustained a defeat without a war."
But worse, as in 1938, war will also come, but it will be more terrible, more catastrophic, and more widespread.
The trap set for the President was the promise that he would gain support for war on Iraq if he secured the UN Security Council's blessing. But what was Iraq promised? Concede and we will resist "war resolutions" in the Security Council and the UN as a whole?
If now there is prevarication by the UN, which no doubt there will be, the President will have two choices: (1) wait and hope that Iraq does not gain the weapons which Saddam Hussein will use to cause catastrophe for the world, or (2) attack Iraq in the face of international opposition, an attack which would be classed as an aggressive war, a war crime.
The President will be in a no-win position.
By succumbing to the "counsel" of the U.S. State Department and America's "ally" Tony Blair, the President will find himself standing on the beach as he watches the tide of "international approval" ebb away. The only one who will "go home and get a nice quiet sleep" tonight, will be Saddam Hussein.
Before making the decision to go to the United Nations, the President would have done well to take "counsel" from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Act IV, Scene III:
"You must note besides, That we have tried the utmost of our friends, Our legions are brim-full, our cause is ripe: The enemy increaseth every day; We, at the height, are ready to decline. There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat; And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures."
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
The United Nations & Its Agencies
The Middle East & the Problem of Iraq
The Problem of Rogue States:
Iraq as a Case History
The Middle East & the Arabs
The Threat of Radical Islam
More on the Threat of Radical Islam
War & Peace in the Real World
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Copyright 2002 John Campbell
Reprinted with Permission of SierraTimes.com
Reprinted from SierraTimes.com
September 18, 2002
SierraTimes.com
URL:
http://www.SierraTimes.com
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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