This post first appeared eight years ago to commemorate the beginning of World War II in 1939. I never dreamed, as our leadership continues negotiations, known or unknown, with fanatics who seek our destruction, that I could post it today, changing only the players and their georgraphy.
This is going a brief post about the most important September 1 in the twentieth century. Today in 1939, Adolph Hitler launched a massive invasion of Poland and plunged the world into war. Eleven months earlier Hitler had signed the Munich Agreement pledging to end his aggression in exchange for certain borderlands in Czechoslovakia inhabited by German-speaking people. Most of us know this history in the context of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain triumphantly returning to London and waving the agreement while declaring "peace for our time."
In the coming months our government may have an opportunity to pass judgement on a nuclear agreement with Iran and perhaps a cease fire in Russia's war against Ukraine. We don't know if these steps back from the brink will produce peace for our time. We almost assuredly know any agreement with Iran will produce, with the assistance of the West, an advanced nuclear program and possibly nuclear arms for a nation in the hands of religious fanatics. The prospects have already produced a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. Those who recognize the phrase, "balance of terror," may see a new parallel developing in the region. With history as our example and virtual wholesale trust as our principle, I believe those who accept such agreements and proudly wave them over the heads of their admirers will become the feckless Chamberlains of the twenty-first century.
Many writers have warned us about the perils of ignoring history. Even in plain sight, we don't seem to listen well.
Sources
Photo: huffingtonpost.com
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