Unending cycles of appeasement

Speaking of Ambrose Bierce, in Politico today, NRO’s Rich Lowry looks at the rise of Egypt’s latest new dictator, Mohamed Morsi:

The great, acerbic 19th-century satirist Ambrose Bierce defined a revolution as “an abrupt change in the form of misgovernment.” He would understand events in Egypt since the fall of Hosni Mubarak very well.

In the signature revolution of the Arab Spring, the country turned its back on a secular dictatorship only to fall into the arms of what looks like a budding Muslim Brotherhood dictatorship. Meet the new pharaoh, same as the old pharaoh. Except Egypt’s old form of misgovernment may soon look progressive by comparison

While it’s nice to see Bierce being quoted, what’s more important to note is how Morsi has deftly played the West like a violin.

Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi’s decree neutering the judiciary is the latest act in his steady consolidation of power. While he assiduously builds a dictatorship, the Obama administration just as assiduously tells itself bedtime stories about his good intentions. It’s a perfect division of labor — he goes about his empire-building with a clear-eyed realism; we consider it through a gauzy lens of delusion.

Since the end of Mubarak, the air has been thick with descriptions of the Muslim Brotherhood and Morsi as moderates, as basically no more than Islamic social democrats. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper called the Muslim Brotherhood “largely secular.” If he had been speaking of the Church of England, he might have been right.

Unfortunately, the Brotherhood’s credo is, “Allah is our objective; the Quran is our law; the Prophet is our leader; Jihad is our way; and death for the sake of Allah is the highest of our aspirations.” And it’s not kidding. Morsi summarized his program during the campaign as “the sharia, then the sharia, and finally the sharia.” (Unlike President Barack Obama, at least he had an agenda.)

Read it all. You would think the civilized West has learned nothing from history. Whether from Khomeini, to Castro, to Mao, and of course to that Austrian corporal who promised that the Sudetenland would be his last demand, well-meaning intellectuals who desperately want peace, and who want to believe the world is ruled by basically good people people who will always listen to reason, forget ancient lessons about how to actually get it and keep peace. Instead, they fall all over themselves in endless cycles of sycophancy in the name of “making peace.”

That appeasement does not work with bullies (and in fact tends to embolden them) is a lesson that cannot be learned no matter how many times it is taught.

Hmmm, maybe I shouldn’t have used the word “taught.” In most American public schools today (like schools in France before WWII) the historical danger of appeasement is never taught. Precisely the opposite is taught, and has been for years. In the name of “education,” children who stand up to bullies are routinely punished.

 


Posted

in

by

Tags:

Comments

8 responses to “Unending cycles of appeasement”

  1. Daniel Taylor Avatar
    Daniel Taylor

    In international politics dictatorship has long been deemed the lesser evil to war.

    What difference if the dictator is Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, or Atheist in that case? As long as they aren’t making war outside their borders it really should be none of our business.

    We may have a moral obligation in how we treat them, but morals have always played second fiddle to interests when the interests of hundreds of millions of people are on the line.

  2. TheAJ Avatar
    TheAJ

    Do you have a solution.

    I mean something other than “lets not appease him!”

  3. Simon Avatar
    Simon

    I never had any illusions about the MB. They allied with Germany in WW2. Mein Kampf is STILL a best seller in the ME.

    The AJ,

    Solution? Well if we had a sufficiently cold foreign policy attuned to reality we would starve them. Barring that nature will take its course in any case. Food prices will be going up until the next Northern Hemisphere harvest. Assuming that all goes well next summer. Our policy of turning corn into alcohol is a perfect if unintended riposte to the situation.

    Egypt imports food. Unlike China or Saudi Arabia it has nothing of significance to sell.

  4. TheAJ Avatar
    TheAJ

    Barring that nature will take its course in any case.

    So you mean, we can just . . . do nothing

    Isn’t that . . . APPEASEMENT!

    Egypt imports food.

    Not from the US.

  5. Enjoy the decline Avatar
    Enjoy the decline

    The West is always droning on and on about democracy and self-determination. This has to be a good thing. The Idol of democracy demands it!

  6. Simon Avatar
    Simon

    AJ,

    Doing nothing is not appeasement. What are we appeasing them with? Are we letting them keep some territory they acquired by military adventure? Letting people keep their own country is hardly appeasement.

    And it doesn’t matter who Egypt gets their food from. It is a world market. They will need to outbid China.

    Enjoy,

    A choice of dictators is not exactly self determination. But I look forward to seeing how Egypt manages its decline.

  7. Eric Avatar

    Former IAEA Chairman Mohamed ElBaradei said that “Morsi today usurped all state powers & appointed himself Egypt’s new pharaoh.” I think the comparison with Castro and Khomeini is valid.

    I agree that doing nothing is not appeasement, but denying that tyrants are tyrants (and heaping praise on them as Obama has done) only encourages them.

  8. […] on Pearl Harbor, and I’m glad to see it is being remembered. Recent events have caused me to worry that this country has still not learned the lessons of World War II, or […]