| That`s how appeasement works, and why it fails: it gives the aggressor its demands, thinking that with each demand they deprive the aggressor of an excuse to be aggressive. Here, the US thinks that giving up Shaba Farms--a tiny piece of land of little consequence to Syria or Lebanon--will somehow deprive Hezbollah of its reason for being, or Syria of a pretext for war. The problem with appeasement is that these items are just pretext for an underlying hostility which does not lack for pretexts, as more will just take their place. Hezbollah will not disarm if Shaba is given up, and Syria still has the Golan issue. Behind those issues are many more: general "resistance" to Israel, their Palestinian "brothers", a an whole bunch they can dig up from old maps, 1948, rights of return, Israeli reconnaisance over Lebanon. When it comes to pretexts for war against Israel the Arabs are endlessly creative. Appeasement of Hitler didn`t work in the thirties, and won`t against the Arabs. |
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