Not Appeasement

Submitted by Douglas Kohn (United States), Sep 26, 2008 at 19:49

... We have used appeasement before. It failed with Nazi Germany, yes, but it worked. In the words Winston Churchill used in his famous Iron Curtain speech, 'I do not believe that Soviet Russia desires war. What they desire is the fruits of war, and the indefinite expansion of their power and doctrines.....What is needed is a settlement.' Yes, a settlement with Iran is needed. I am not saying we should take the military option off the table. On the contrary, we should be more clever in the use of our military power. But we need a Grand Bargain with Iran where their rights are respected to a certain extent.

At the end of World War II, we appeased the Soviet Union by protecting as much of Europe as was within our power to do. In the process we gave them control of everything east of Berlin. Then we built up the military so that they did not seek to expand further. We did take a stand. But we did it cleverly. We did not push for endless war. As a matter of fact, while you and your Neocon friends were pushing America to get into a shooting war with the Russians, the prudent administrations of every president did all that was in their power to avoid getting into a war with the Russians. The KGB even killed a congressman, and we still did nothing. We have to realize how far our power can go. We can use proper diplomacy combined with military demonstrations to convince Iran it is not in their interest to get a nuclear bomb. However, the threat of Islamic fascist revolution throughout the Middle East is not a direct threat to the United States if there are no weapons of mass destruction involved. Who cares if Iran is under a terrible regime if they can be contained, especially if we are able to keep them from getting nuclear weapons.

A proper strategy for America is the one we are pursuing right now. We must draw down our forces in Iraq and redistribute them through out the region to counter the Iranians. Recently, the CIA and other intelligence agencies have put $400 million into various insurgent and dissident groups in Iran. Iran, like Russia, is fundamentally a weak country. They are buoyed by oil. We must consolidate our position in the Middle East to protect Israel and our Arab allies. Right now America's interest is to keep the price of oil low. This means that we must leave an attack on Iran to the very last minute. We have to stand up and face them down. This does not necessarily mean we have to fight them. We were able to bring down the Soviet Union, a much more powerful and infinitely more dangerous country by simply standing up to them. We did not have to fight them directly.

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