Is Obama More Like Neville Chamberlain Than Like FDR?

“It is astounding how easy the democracies make it for us to reach our goal.”
Adolph Hitler, quoted by Barry Rubin

Following Obama's proposal last week of allying with Islamist groups against Syria, Barry Rubin notes some Startling Parallels: Obama Appeasement Policy and British Intelligence Files on Hitler

• The day after Hitler took power, on January 30, 1933, the Times of London (a newspaper like the New York Times) editorialized:
  

  “That Herr Hitler who leads the strongest party in the Reichstag and obtained almost one third of the votes at the last election should be given the chance at showing that he is something more than an orator and an agitator was always desirable.”
  

• Meanwhile, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, according to a senior British diplomat, “was completely bewitched by his German friends and reported myopically that ‘the German compass was pointed toward peace.’”
  
  
• As late as February 19, 1940, Chamberlain wrote,” All the information I seem to get points to peace.”

Read he whole thing.

Chamberlain and Hitler. Blinded by an idea. Credit: Wiki Commons

This despite various warnings, outlined by Rubin, of the danger of trusting Hitler

Among the reasons that factored into the British decision to treat Hitler and Nazi Germany with kid gloves was the assumption that if flattered and treated the right way, the Germans would not be as aggressive.

A second reason mentioned by Rubin is British guilt over the way that Germany had been treated after WWI -- a situation he compares to today's claims of Islamophobia.

One of the factors in British policy was a hope that if the Germans were flattered and treated properly, they would not be aggressive. Another reason was that the British felt guilty that they had formerly treated Germany so badly after World War One (Germanophobia?)

We recognize today the foolishness in trusting Hitler and the Nazi Party -- but what will it take to recognize the Islamist groups for what they are?

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