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Date Posted: 10:07:54 03/13/03 Thu
Author: FawnDoo
Subject: One point for now.....
In reply to: WarCore 's message, "Interesting article in the LA Times" on 20:41:26 03/12/03 Wed

"Had Europe's great powers intervened against Adolf Hitler's aggressive ambitions in 1938 instead of appeasing him in Munich, humanity would have been spared the unprecedented horrors of World War II."

This is a little simplistic - I agree with the basic stab of what the writer means (I too believe that Hitler was emboldened by peaceful overtures where an armed response may have discouraged him) but it ignores the fact of why the appeasement policy was followed with such fervour - it was to avoid the horrors of war, which had been loosed on Europe in what they then called "the great war" of 1914-1918. It was not fear of Germany or Hitler - it was fear of seeing another generation die in the mud of some far-off field for the sake of two feet of Godforsaken dirt. History has not taken a kind view of those who followed the appeasement policy - and that is a whole other debate - but the ultimate reason such a policy was followed was to try to avoid another horrific modern war, which was at that point still a deep scar on everyone's psyche.

The reason I say "simplistic" to blame it on appeasement alone is because Hitler's rise to power was facilitated by the fact that Germany was a beaten, poorly-treated country that was just looking for a way to hit back: and that could be traced to the terms the allies imposed on Germany after 1918 which led to complete economic ruin in Germany with the aim of knocking them completely out of the ballpark when it came to any fighting in the future. In fact the French Premiere, Georges Clemenceau was criticised at the time for seeming a little to eager to get his pound of flesh from the Germans in the form of war reparations. After 1918 there was a palpable sense of "We'll make them suffer for this." in the peace negotiations (Wilson in particular was exasperated with Clemenceau over this issue) and that could also be said to have led to the second world war - the fact that the Germans might have been bad losers, but the Allies were even worse winners.

Believe it or not, I agree that Saddam Hussein should be dealt with: however I, like others, wonder about the timing - and if I may say, I also have reservations about the way America has dealt with international criticism to date. Forgive me but so far foreign policy seems to have taken its cue from George W Bush's pre 9/11 sentiment of "if you're not with us, you're against us" and polarizing the issue like that is not the way to go about it - but as so many other things, that is a whole other debate! :-)

Just thought I should put my point about the appeasement thing across, it just struck me as a little simplistic to me. Probably not what the writer meant, but it did come across that way anyway.

Cheers all

FD

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