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"Moral paralysis" is a term that has been
used to describe the inaction of France, England
and other European democracies in the 1930s, as
they watched Hitler build up the military forces
that he later used to attack them.
It is a term that may be painfully relevant
to our own times.
Iran's President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad listens to the
playing of national anthems at the Ash-Shaeb
presidential palace in Damascus,
Thursday, July 19, 2007. Ahmedinejad
arrived in Damascus, Thursday on an
official visit to Syria's President
Assad for talks on regional issues and
on ways of boosting bilateral relations.
(AP Photo Bassem Tellawi)
Back in the 1930s, the governments of the
democratic countries knew what Hitler was doing
-- and they knew that they had enough military
superiority at that point to stop his military
buildup in its tracks. But they did nothing to
stop him.
Instead, they turned to what is still the
magic mantra today -- "negotiations."
No leader of a democratic nation was ever
more popular than British Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain -- wildly cheered in the House of
Commons by opposition parties as well as his own
-- when he returned from negotiations in Munich
in 1938, waving an agreement and declaring that
it meant "peace in our time."
We know now how short that time was. Less
than a year later, World War II began in Europe
and spread across the planet, killing tens of
millions of people and reducing many cities to
rubble in Europe and Asia.
Looking back after that war, Winston
Churchill said, "There was never a war in all
history easier to prevent by timely action." The
earlier it was done, the less it would have
cost.
At one point, Hitler could have been stopped
in his tracks "without the firing of a single
shot," Churchill said.
That point came in 1936 -- three years before
World War II began -- when Hitler sent troops
into the Rhineland, in violation of two
international treaties.
At that point, France alone was so much more
powerful than Germany that the German generals
had secret orders to retreat immediately at the
first sign of French intervention.
As Hitler himself confided, the Germans would
have had to retreat "with our tail between our
legs," because they did not yet have enough
military force to put up even a token
resistance.
Why did the French not act and spare
themselves and the world the years of horror
that Hitler's aggressions would bring? The
French had the means but not the will.
"Moral paralysis" came from many things. The
death of a million French soldiers in the First
World War and disillusionment with the peace
that followed cast a pall over a whole
generation.
Pacifism became vogue among the
intelligentsia and spread into educational
institutions. As early as 1932, Winston
Churchill said: "France, though armed to the
teeth, is pacifist to the core."
It was morally paralyzed.
History may be interesting but it is the
present and the future that pose the crucial
question: Is America today the France of
yesterday?
We know that Iran is moving swiftly toward
nuclear weapons while the United Nations is
moving slowly -- or not at all -- toward doing
anything to stop them.
It is a sign of our irresponsible Utopianism
that anyone would even expect the UN to do
anything that would make any real difference.
Not only the history of the UN, but the
history of the League of Nations before it,
demonstrates again and again that going to such
places is a way for weak-kneed leaders of
democracies to look like they are doing
something when in fact they are doing nothing.
The Iranian leaders are not going to stop
unless they get stopped. And, like Hitler, they
don't think we have the guts to stop them.
Incidentally, Hitler made some of the best
anti-war statements of the 1930s. He knew that
this was what the Western democracies wanted to
hear -- and that it would keep them morally
paralyzed while he continued building up his
military machine to attack them.
Iranian leaders today make only the most
token and transparent claims that they are
building "peaceful" nuclear facilities -- in one
of the biggest oil-producing countries in the
world, which has no need for nuclear power to
generate electricity.
Nuclear weapons in the hands of Iran and its
international terrorist allies will be a worst
threat than Hitler ever was. But, before that
happens, the big question is: Are we France? Are
we morally paralyzed, perhaps fatally?
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