The Folly of Appeasement
posted in Politics, War on Islamo-Fascism |From Saudi Arabia's English-language Arab News:
With the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah expressing regret Sunday on Lebanese TV for the month-long war in Lebanon in which more than a thousand people died, many people in the Kingdom accused the Hezbollah militia of "adventurism" and being "irresponsible." . . .
Abu Muhammad, a Saudi private sector worker, said, "What I don't understand is that if he knew that Israel was going to react like this then why did he do it? In my opinion he is no different to (Osama) Bin Laden who brought destruction to the Arab and Islamic world because of his adventurism." . . .
Hasan Minawi is a Lebanese national in his early 30s living in Jeddah. He said, "Nasrallah's regret was expected — he wasn't even ready for this war. He did not build any shelters or at least set up an siren system to warn people about pending attacks. He was ready with arms but not with backup. He should have apologized long ago."
Minawi added, "Nasrallah knows how the Israeli enemy behaves, he should have known it was going to go this far and even beyond."
James Taranto notes:
Minawi's comment is quite revealing. He's not saying it was morally wrong to attack Israel but that it was strategically stupid to provoke "the Israeli enemy" with the knowledge that it would strike back. By this reasoning, there would be no reason not to attack Israel if it refrained from defending itself. It's a nice example of the folly of appeasement.
