In a recent interview with Essense Magazine, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice discussed to the current situation in Iraq, endeavoring to place it in the context of the American Civil War. Her remarks included an attempt to buttress the “stay the course” mantra of the administration by striving to liken critics of the current policies towards the situation in Iraq to those “people who thought it was a mistake to fight the Civil War (in this country) to its end and to insist that the emancipation of slaves would hold.”
As a long time student of history, I feel I am safe in making this statement: If the administration of President George W. Bush wishes to use historical parallels to bolster support for their policies, then they should read their history a bit more thoroughly and ensure they have a reasonable understanding before embarking upon their PR campaigns. This includes efforts at diminishing criticism by deliberately linking it to the historically, emotionally charged word “appeasement” (intentionally using the high level of fervor associated with the word to create the gut reaction desired, as merchants of fear will do), but I will limit my discussion here to the remarks by Secretary Rice.