May 17, 2008

Negotiating isn't appeasement, jerkoff

An LA Times op-ed blasts Dimbulb McDumbass and his fellow conservatards --

"Bush, McCain and other conservatives are on the wrong side of history"

[I]f there is anything that has been discredited by history, it is the argument that every enemy is Hitler, that negotiations constitute appeasement, and that talking will automatically lead to a slaughter of Holocaust-like proportions. It is an argument that conservatives made throughout the Cold War, and, if the charge seemed overblown at the time, it seems positively ludicrous with the clarity of hindsight. [snip]

Containment, negotiation, nuclear stability -- each of these things helped protect the United States and end the Cold War. And yet, at the time, conservatives thought each was synonymous with appeasement.

The Bush administration has been little different, refusing for years to talk to North Korea or Iran about their nuclear programs because it wanted to defeat evil, not talk to it. The result was that Pyongyang tested a nuclear weapon and Iran's uranium program continued unfettered.

Given conservatism's historical record, Obama's inclination to negotiate seems only sensible. When will conservatives learn that it is 2008, not 1938?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Egg-fucking-zackly, Maru (re: these last 2 posts on 'appeasement')! There are SO many things wrong with this idea that all it REALLY does is once again ((sigh)) demonstrate Bush/the Neo-cons dangerous political ineptitude in any century later than the 13th. If their ethos had entirely prevailed in Washington in the Cold War, it would've soon become a 'hot' war with a nuclear exchange (which we now find out -- some 30-40 yrs later -- that we came ominously close to several times ANYWAY). For the most part, it's a lot of typical right-wing chickenhawk chest beating cant, but unfortunately it occasionally does result in assholes like John Bolton being appointed to the UN as the US representative, where they can really cause some damage.

Anonymous said...

When will conservatives learn that it is 2008, not 1938? Never. For conservatives, it's still 1638.