The False Comfort of Appeasement....

President Bush, in Israel for that nation's 60th statehood anniversary celebration, had this to say about appeasing terrorists:

Speaking before the Knesset, Bush said that “some people” believe the United States “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," Bush said. "As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all 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."

The upshot has been an outpouring of venom and remonstrance from various Dems. To wit:

House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel issued a statement in which he said: "The tradition has always been that when a U.S. president is overseas, partisan politics stops at the water's edge. President Bush has now taken that principle and turned it on its head: for this White House, partisan politics now begins at the water’s edge, no matter the seriousness and gravity of the occasion. Does the president have no shame?”(emphasis added)

Joe Biden:This is bullshit, this is malarkey. This is outrageous, for the president of the United States to go to a foreign country, to sit in the Knesset . . . and make this kind of ridiculous statement.”

Has anyone mentioned the above principle to Carter and B. Clinton? It seems to me that a reference to the principle of no negotiations with terrorists is perfectly appropriate in the land that perfected that maxim. Bush says he was not speaking specifically about Obama, who has stated he would sit down and negotiate with Iran among others.
White House press secretary Dana Perino, who was in Israel with Bush, denied the president was intervening in the 2008 election, and said his comments did not directly target Obama.

"I understand when you're running for office you sometimes think the world revolves around you -- that is not always true and it is not true in this case."

Nancy Pelosi, for her part, is attempting to get Sen. McCain to condemn the President's remarks, which he probably will, just as he did in the case of Republican ad in North Carolina.

Referring to Sen. John McCain, Pelosi said: "I would hope that any serious person that aspires to lead the country, would disassociate themselves from those comments.”

Tags:president bush in israel,israel statehood celebration,appeasement of terrorists,barack obama,campaign 08,partisan politics overseas,