The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 3 of 13)

I thank God that George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Don Rumsfeld are leading the country at this crucial time. Beginning with George Bush's second inaugural, followed up by several speeches by the vice president and now Rumsfeld's masterpiece to the American Legion, these speeches and the ideas they set forth document a comprehensive understanding of current world affairs tempered by the hard won lessons of 20th century history. The ideals and directions these leaders espouse are in the best traditions of America. Traditions that hold regardless of political affiliation.

Many politicians who oppose the current policies seem to have lost touch with reality. Many in the main stream media also seem to have lost touch with reality. The best example of this is the Keith Olbermann soliloquy delivered yesterday in which Mr. Olbermann equates the Bush administration with the Chamberlain administration and critics of the war on terror with Winston Churchill. This is the world stood on its head.

p>Rumsfeld's description of many critics as "morally confused" is spot on. br> -- Doug Santo br> Pasadena, California /p>

A contemporary of Clemenceau, Woodrow Wilson, while in France for the Versailles Treaty conferences, once said to an aide, "There must be no delay. It has been so always. People will endure their tyrants for years, but they tear their deliverers to pieces if a heaven on earth is not created immediately." (Ref: The Great War and the Shaping of the Twentieth Century, p. 340.)

Wilson could just as easily have been speaking those words today: Democrats suffer having to appease tyrants for years, and along comes Bush to deliver them and the rest of us from those tyrants, and he gets torn to pieces for not creating a heaven on earth immediately, if not sooner.

p>Keep up the good work. br> -- Gordon Paravano br> Sedona, Arizona /p>

Mr. Tyrrell is right to point out differences between the appeasers of the 1930s (in power and smug) and today's (out of power, smug and opportunistic). It may also be helpful to contrast those being appeased. Yesterday's appeasers were confronted with a movement -- national socialism (Nazism) -- that constantly reassured its future victims that they had nothing to worry about. It was about reclaiming some limited territory with historic Germanic connections, etc. Hitler sounded quite reasonable.

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