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Republicans are blasting President Joe Biden after the U.S. military announced three American troops were killed and more than 30 injured in a drone attack in Jordan on Sunday.
Sen. Tom Cotton, (R-AR) himself a veteran, said yesterday, “Joe Biden emboldened Iran for years by tolerating attacks on our troops, bribing the ayatollahs with billions of dollars, and appeasing them to no end. He left our troops as sitting ducks and now three are dead and dozens wounded, sadly as I’ve predicted would happen for months."
This is reminiscent of the insanity that prevailed in the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Appeasement has never worked. And it certainly is not working now.
Be informed, not misled.
Cotton said yesterday, “On behalf of Arkansans, I extend my deepest condolence to the families of our brave fallen warriors. May God comfort them as He welcomes their loved ones into His embrace. And may God quickly and completely heal their wounded comrades."
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), also a veteran, said the Biden administration’s policy of deterrence against Iran “has failed miserably.”
“There have been over 100 attacks against U.S. forces in the region. Iran is undeterred,” he said, adding, “I am sending my condolences to the families of our fallen heroes in Jordan. I am also wishing a full recovery to those injured. Our forces in Jordan and Syria are there to protect the American homeland and to provide stability in a troubled region. Their service and sacrifice will always be appreciated. They are true heroes.”
Here's what happened.
On Sunday afternoon, U.S. Central Command announced that three U.S. service members were killed and more than 30 injured from a one-way attack drone that hit a military base in northeast Jordan, near the Syria border.
Iran-proxy forces have targeted U.S. troops in the region since Hamas’s terrorist attack in Israel on October 7, which killed more than 1,200.
There have been more than 150 attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria since mid-October, with at least one critically injured. Sunday’s attack was the first time U.S. troops have been killed in such an attack in recent months.
The two military veterans now serving as US Senators are calling for retaliation.
The nation should demand leadership from the supposed leader of our country.
Leadership is so absent in this administration that President Biden, campaigning in Columbia S.C. on Saturday, referred to Trump as the "sitting president."
Newsweek quickly jumped in to cover for President Biden, while most "news" organizations refused to even mention the confusion.
Trump, who is currently not the "sitting president," also weighed in on the matter. “The drone attack on a U.S. Military Installation in Jordan, killing 3 American service members, and wounding many more, marks a horrible day for America,” he said.
He continued, “This brazen attack on the United States is yet another horrific and tragic consequence of Joe Biden’s weakness and surrender.”
Yesterday, President Biden told his supporters at Brookland Baptist Church, "We shall respond."
He said officials are still gathering information about the incident.
Appeasement fails every time.
Senator Graham says, "Secretary Austin’s efforts to deter aggression against our forces in the region has failed miserably. I’ve long since lost confidence in the Biden national security team to deter Iran. If they do not change their policies now, more American service members in the region will pay the price. Hit Iran now. Hit them hard."
The failure of Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasement of Hitler in our most recent World War (II) meant war was inevitable. It always does.
Victor Davis Hanson wrote the following on April 1, 2015, regarding "appeasement" toward Iran:
The Columbus Dispatch published the article.
The Western capitulation to Adolf Hitler in the 1938 Munich Agreement is cited as classic appeasement that destroyed Czechoslovakia, backfired on France and Britain, and led to World War II.
All of that is true.
But there was much more that caused the Munich debacle than simple Western naivete. The full tragedy of that ill-fated agreement should warn us on the eve of the President Barack Obama’s administration’s gullible agreement with Iran on nuclear proliferation.
Fable one is the idea that most people saw right through the Munich folly. True, Europeans knew that Hitler had never once told the truth and was already murdering German citizens who were Jews, communists, or homosexuals. But Europeans did not care all that much.
Instead, the Western world was ecstatic over the agreement. After the carnage of World War I, Europeans would do anything to avoid even a small confrontation — even if such appeasement all but ensured a far greater bloodbath than the one that began in 1914.
Another myth was that Hitler’s Wehrmacht was strong and the democracies were weak. In fact, the combined French and British militaries were far larger than Hitler’s. French Char tanks and British Spitfire fighters were as good as, or superior to, their German counterparts.
Czechoslovakia had formidable defenses and an impressive arms industry. Poland and perhaps even the Soviet Union were ready to join a coalition to stop Hitler from dissolving the Czech state.
It is also untrue that the Third Reich was united. Many of Hitler’s top generals did not want war. Yet each time Hitler successfully called the Allies’ bluff — in the Rhineland or with the annexation of Austria — the credibility of his doubters sank while his own reckless risk-taking became even more popular.
Munich was hardly a compassionate agreement. In callous fashion it immediately doomed millions of Czechs and put Poland on the target list of the Third Reich.
Munich was directly tied to the vanity of Neville Chamberlain. In the first few weeks after Munich, Chamberlain basked in adulation, posing as the humane savior of Western civilization. In contrast, loud skeptic Winston Churchill was dismissed by the media and public as an old warmonger.
Hitler failed to appreciate the magnanimity and concessions of the French and British. He later called his Munich diplomatic partners “worms.” Hitler said of the obsequious Chamberlain, “I’ll kick him downstairs and jump on his stomach in front of the photographers.”
The current negotiations with the Iranians in Lausanne, Switzerland, have all the hallmarks of the Munich negotiations.
Most Westerners accept that the Iranian government funds terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas. It has all but taken over Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. Yet the idea of stronger sanctions, blockades, or even force to stop Iranian efforts to get a bomb is considered scarier than Iran getting a bomb that it just possibly might not threaten to use.
The U.S. and its NATO partners are far stronger than Iran in every imaginable measure of military and economic strength. The Iranian economy is struggling, its government is corrupt and its conventional military is obsolete. Iran’s only chance of gaining strength is to show both its own population and the world at large that stronger Western powers backed down in fear of its threats and recklessness.
Iran is not united. It is a mishmash nation in which over a third of the population is not Persian. Millions of protestors hit the streets in 2009. An Iranian journalist covering the talks defected in Switzerland — and said that U.S. officials at the talks are there mainly to speak on behalf of Iran.
By reaching an agreement with Iran, John Kerry and Barack Obama hope to salvage some sort of legacy, in the vain fashion of Chamberlain, out of a heretofore failed foreign policy.
There are more Munich parallels. The Iranian agreement will force rich Sunni nations to get their own bombs to ensure a nuclear Middle East standoff. A deal with Iran shows callous disagreement for our close ally Israel, which is serially threatened by Iran’s mullahs. The United States is distant from Iran. But our allies in the Middle East and Europe are within its missile range.
Supporters of the Obama administration deride skeptics such as Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as if they were doubting old Churchills.
Our dishonor in Lausanne, as with Munich, may avoid a confrontation in the present, but our shame will guarantee a war in the near future.
Takeaway
Hanson concluded his 2015 article with this: "Finally, the Iranians, like Hitler, have only contempt for the administration that has treated them so fawningly. During the negotiations in Switzerland, the Iranians blew up a mock U.S. aircraft carrier. Their supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, did his usual 'death to America' shtick before adoring crowds."
Much has changed since 2015, yet nothing has changed since 2015 regarding appeasement.
Leadership matters.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful.