Does Bush think the Secretary of Defense is an appeaser?
Yesterday, President Bush delivered a speech in Israel in which he called "appeasers" anyone who advocates talks with Iran. He even drew an explicit parallel to 1930's-era Nazi appeasers:
"Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before," Bush said.
"As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: "Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided." We have an obligation to call this what it is -- the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history," he added.
Presumably, that ambiguous "some" would include Barack Obama.
I'm wondering if Bush considers his own Secretary of Defense an appeaser. Robert Gates said this about Iran yesterday, the same day as Bush's speech in Israel:
"We need to figure out a way to develop some leverage . . . and then sit down and talk with them," Gates said. "If there is going to be a discussion, then they need something, too. We can't go to a discussion and be completely the demander, with them not feeling that they need anything from us."
In the meantime, Gates told a meeting of the Academy of American Diplomacy, a group of retired diplomats, "my personal view would be we ought to look for ways outside of government to open up the channels and get more of a flow of people back and forth." Noting that "a fair number" of Iranians regularly visit the United States, he said, "We ought to increase the flow the other way . . . of Americans" visiting Iran.
"I think that may be the one opening that creates some space," Gates said.
Of course, the realities of diplomatic engagement are lost on anyone who sees this country's adversaries as "evildoers." Simple-minded worldviews don't cotton too well to the idea of negotiation, so Bush's speech isn't really a surprise. I'd be curious to know if he'd have the spine to call Gates an appeaser to his face.
Somehow, I doubt it.