One of Bush's Best
This is one of Bush’s best speeches ever:
There are good and decent people who cannot fathom the darkness in these men and try to explain away their words. It’s natural, but it is deadly wrong. As witnesses to evil in the past, we carry a solemn responsibility to take these words seriously. Jews and Americans have seen the consequences of disregarding the words of leaders who espouse hatred. And that is a mistake the world must not repeat in the 21st century.
Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. 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.
Some people suggest if the United States would just break ties with Israel, all our problems in the Middle East would go away. This is a tired argument that buys into the propaganda of the enemies of peace, and America utterly rejects it.
Why is it that in the best speeches Bush has ever given, he sounds almost exactly like Reagan? Actually, come to think of it, that’s not really a surprise at all.
And when Obama complained that this was a political attack against him, he misunderstood who Bush was criticizing, I think. If you read Bush’s words carefully, he’s obviously criticizing Jimmy Carter. That Obama misunderstood it as a criticism of himself just further entrenches my belief that an Obama presidency would be as much of a disaster as a Carter presidency (and worse, that an Obama ex-presidency would be just as bad as a Carter ex-presidency). Which might be unavoidable, and it actually might be necessary for the country before we can turn to another Reagan-quality president. But still disconcerting nonetheless.
I think it is truly a proud position to believe that one can carry some type of “ingenious argument” that will “persuade them they have been wrong all along.” Any would-be president who doesn’t understand the principle here — the problem with “the false comfort of appeasement,” needs to take a few more history lessons.