The Guy Who Screwed Up My Order At the Drive Through? He Wanted Hitler To Conquer Europe!
By William Kristol–who I would say was “phoning it in” except that punching the numbers on the phone requires effort; it’s more like that Alec Baldwin “how to be a handsome actor” sketch where you just pick up the phone and start talking, or in this case recycling ludicrously inappropriate analogies–doesn’t even bother with a serious argument and heads straight for Munich like any fourth-rate blogger for whom “Peace In Our Time” is the only knowledge about foreign affairs not derived from Civ 2:
IN THE SPRING OF 1936–seventy years ago–Hitler’s Germany occupied the Rhineland. France’s Leon Blum denounced this as “unacceptable.” But France did nothing. As did the British. And the United States.
In a talk last year, Christopher Caldwell quoted the great Raymond Aron’s verdict: “To say that something is unacceptable was to say that one accepted it.” Aron further remarked that Blum had in fact seemed proud of France’s putting up no resistance. Indeed, Blum had said, “No one suggested using military force. That is a sign of humanity’s moral progress.” Aron remarked: “This moral progress meant the end of the French system of alliances, and almost certain war.”
Look, enough already. The analogy with Iran and Nazi Germany is a little better than it was when it was dusted off three years ago; Iran going nuclear would actually be a security threat to the United States, while Hussein for all intents and purposes posed no security threat to the United States at all. But all analogies with Chamberlain are null until Iran has the potential capacity to conquer and initiate full-scale genocide over a large region, or in other words not in any foreseeable future. Iran having nuclear weapons is certainly suboptimal, but at least two nasty Stalinist regimes have had nuclear weapons and the republic still stands, with its gravest security threats having nothing to do with either. These analogies are pathetically quarter-assed smear jobs, glossing over every difficult question.
It’s also worth noting that the purported domino effect that the Iraq war would purportedly unleash throughout the middle east, causing dictators to surrender in trembling fear to pro-American and -Israeli liberal democracies, seems not to be working in this case. Strange. It’s almost as if invading a country for no obvious reason makes it all the more important for states to acquire nuclear weapons. What a surprise!