Appeasement

Mitt Romney accused President Obama of appeasement of America’s enemies.  Immediately we think of Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of Hitler prior to the start of WWII.  Britain and France pursued a policy of appeasement in the hope that Hitler would not drag Europe into another world war.  It was the surrender of Sudeten to Germany from Czechoslovakia. We all know how that ended. The start of the war is generally held to be September 1, 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland.

The facts do not support the Romney accusation.

•   1. Obama increased the number of troops in Afghanistan from 30,000 to 100,000 in his first year in office.  While a draw down has started the forces are still larger than 30,000.

• 2. Many high-profile Al-Qaeda leaders have been killed.  Among them are Osama bin-Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki.

• 3. As recently as Wednesday of this week a U.S. spy drone crash landed in Iran.

• 4. The United States will be deploying 2,500 military personnel to the north coast of Australia as a message to China that they do not control the Western Pacific region.

• 5. There has been no draw down of American troops anywhere in the Far East. Nor has there been any withdrawal of forces from any nation in the world.

• 6. The United States did turn back an effort by Palestinians to gain nationhood status in the U.N.

• 7. The United States provided the military power that removed Muammar Gaddafi  from power in Libya.

The real problem is that Mitt Romney seems to believe that if he repeats a lie enough times it will be believed.  Barack Obama should not waste a moment of time defending his decisions in foreign affairs.