Thursday, May 15, 2008

Chris Matthews on the difference between negotiation and appeasement

I just became a somewhat bigger fan of Chris Matthews (I'm mostly neutral on the talk show pundits, except Keith Olbermann, who I think is great). He had some guy named Kevin James on his show. Apparently he's a DJ here in LA, although I've never heard him. The subject is Bush's comment - in the Knesset - about how it's wrong to appease dictators. Matthews briefly mentions that it's inappropriate for an American politician to criticize another American politician on foreign soil, which it is. Particularly when you are addressing a foreign government.

But the real fun begins when Matthews asks this Kevin joker just exactly what Neville Chamberlain did wrong when dealing with Hitler. Specifically. Let's get detailed - what EXACTLY did he do wrong? And of course this guy has no idea, and that becomes obvious fairly quickly. And Matthews just dismisses him. It's brutal. But funny.

Before we go to the video, it's important to emphasize the key issue: there is a difference between negotiations, which you do with your enemies to avoid war, and appeasement, which is capitulation. The two are not the same.

This is from Talking Points Memo.

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