What are German-speaking people saying about whether Barack Obama is a Neville Chamberlain-like ‘appeaser’ for suggesting talks with Iran – or as President Bush put it ‘radicals and terrorists?’
“If Democratic candidate Barack Obama is denigrated simply because he wants to talk to the Iranian leadership, it is primarily election campaign rhetoric … Those who negotiate with Iran must not be accused of seeking to create a new version of the Munich Agreement . The accusation of appeasement is unfounded. Churchill once said that: ‘An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile – hoping it will eat him last.’ But if need be, the U.S. and Israel have a club in hand with which to hit the Iranian crocodile over the head.”
By Christian Ultsch
Translated By Ulf Behncke
May 24, 2008
Austria – Die Presse – Original Article (German)
Just because people like Barack Obama would like to negotiate with Iran doesn’t necessarily mean they are naive.
In 1972, Richard Nixon flew to Beijing and met with Chinese mass-murderer Mao Zedong; in 1985, Ronald Reagan sat down with the General Secretary the Soviet’s “evil empire,” Mikhail Gorbachev at the table. Republican presidents have met with their enemies time and again in recent history. Even George W. Bush, who is often portrayed as narrow-minded and oversimplifying things as black-and-white, has done so well negotiating with Libya that he has made agreements with North Korea.
If Democratic candidate Barack Obama is denigrated simply because he wants to talk to the Iranian leadership, it is primarily election campaign rhetoric. A normalization of U.S.-Iran relations could help prevent a nuclear arms race in the Middle East and stabilize the region. Of course it would be naive to expect miracles from such a dialogue. Talks can be abused to play for time. Conversely, the hard-line approach has failed to deter the Mullah’s from giving up their nuclear ambitions.
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