Free Republic

On the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, the granddaughter of former Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain has defended his response to the threat posed by Hitler. Chamberlain became prime minister in 1937 when Stanley Baldwin retired following the abdication of Edward VIII. He had been a Conservative MP for 19 years, some of which were served in senior ministerial positions, including chancellor. However, many historians believe Chamberlain's legacy as prime minister was tainted by his government's policy of appeasement towards Hitler. But Mary de Vere Taylor, who lives in Ashburton, Devon, has defended her grandfather, describing him...

It is easy now to deride the efforts of Neville Chamberlain. But at the time there seemed to be a realistic chance of peace ) It is 70 years since war broke out in 1939, but historic questions remain. “Appeasement” is still a dirty word, but so is “war-monger”. President Bush repeatedly used the memory of Winston Churchill in 1940 to justify his wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Revisionist historians question whether Neville Chamberlain, the architect of the 1930s appeasement policy, had any choice. One witness was Sir Nevile Henderson, who published his account in Failure of a Mission. Henderson...

WASHINGTON'S traditional means of projecting power abroad was growing "increasingly obsolete" and its billion-dollar military hardware could be as ineffectual against future threats as the heavily fortified Maginot line was in defending France against the Nazis, a senior Pentagon adviser has warned. In a wake-up call to US military chiefs, Andrew Krepinevich, a leading architect of the counter-insurgency strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan, argued that the Pentagon was ill-equipped to counter rising powers such as China, hostile states such as Iran, the threat from irregular forces such as Hezbollah, and terrorists such as al-Qa'ida. It was also wasting billions on...

The mother of New York Yankee pitcher Joba Chamberlain has been busted for allegedly slinging hardcore drugs to an undercover cop. Jacqueline Standley was arrested at her Lincoln, Neb. apartment on Saturday night after allegedly selling ".6 gram of methamphetamine in a plastic bag" to a cop for $110 back in February

President Barack Obama will send his Vice President Joseph Biden and a top-level delegation to the Munich Security Conference this weekend to hear what US allies have to say before his new foreign policies go into effect. Biden's speech at the conference Saturday was billed by an Obama official who requested anonimity as "the first major foreign policy of this White House." While Obama focuses on the economic crisis back home, Biden in Europe "will outline the sort of vision of foreign policy and national security policy that this administration brings to the world stage now that it's in power,"...

The Obama administration has asked the military's Joint Chiefs of Staff to cut the Pentagon's budget request for the fiscal year 2010 by more than 10 percent -- about $55 billion -- a senior U.S. defense official tells FOX News.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- President Barack Obama said in an interview with Al-Arabiya television news that the U.S. isn't an enemy of the Muslim world. Obama told the Dubai-based network that he had Muslim relatives and that he lived in the Muslim-majority nation of Indonesia for several years.

In Indonesia alone, 19 million Muslims support violent jihad but Barack Obama believes the problem is only with a few rogue Al-Qaeda terrorists.In a 2006 Pew international survey a majority of Muslims believe that Arabs are not behind the 9-11 and millions believe that violent attacks against civilians are acceptable. The Politico reported on Obama's interview with Al-Arabiya tonight.The post-partisan president once again bashes President Bush: The interview with the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya Network was a dramatic piece of public diplomacy aimed at capitalizing on the new American president's international popularity, though it balanced America's traditional commitment to Israel, whose security...

We are in danger of letting the strong strain of appeasement and pacifism now abroad in the land prevent us from taking early steps now that will prevent unspeakable calamities later. The classic case of history is the appeasement of Adolf Hitler leading up to World War II. The West finally woke up to the need to stop Hitler, but by then, instead of a relatively small police operation we had World War II that cost 72 million lives and untold other casualties, property damage, and international disruption. The issue now is whether we are displaying the same moral blindness...

The Foreign Ministry is examining an initiative aimed at reaching a long-term non-belligerence pact with Lebanon to prevent renewed fighting along the northern border. The initiative was first revealed two weeks ago during a strategic discussion over the future of the Middle East peace process that was held as part of the ministry's evaluation of regional developments. The evaluation is the first of its kind, and was initiated by ministry director-general Aharon Abramovich, and later supported by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. Livni's close advisers and senior ministry officials participated in the discussion. Given the officials' close relationship with Livni, the...

Seventy years ago on September 29, 1938, the leaders of Germany, Italy, France and Great Britain concluded an agreement in Munich that has gone down in history as one of the West's greatest political debacles. According to it, Hitler was allowed to take over a region of the Czechoslovak Republic, known as the Sudetenland, which contained a large ethnic German population. He had been threatening to use force to achieve his ends, and the British and French appeased him hoping to avoid a new and devastating conflict. Of course the agreement did not foster peace: rather it paved the way...

Samantha Power, former foreign policy advisor to the Barack Obama campaign, has penned a strange defense of Barack Obama's willingness to negotiate with America's enemies. In this week's Time magazine, Power argues that British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's diplomatic engagement with Adolf Hitler in 1938 should not sully diplomacy's good name. She writes: . . . instead of caricaturing diplomacy by invoking the Munich Agreement as code for spinelessness, it is worth studying Chamberlain's failed effort in the Munich talks for lessons in how not to negotiate. He was unprepared, unsophisticated and ultimately unsuccessful in preventing World War II. Having...

We haven't had an installment of our ongoing series presenting Churchill's speeches in a long time. We now return the series with Part 9: Churchill's eulogy for Neville Chamberlain in the House of Commons. It is so exemplar of Churchill's ability to use the English language. Never does he sacrifice one inch of his beliefs regarding the differences between these two British leaders, and yet he praises Chamberlain so highly and kindly nonetheless. So honorable, and truly amazing.There are lessons here. Moral lessons, about how we should retain our humanity in spite of political differences. Political lessons, as shown in...

What did Chamberlain do? What is appeasement? And what happened to John McCain's arms? One of the little election year mini-dramas making the Internet rounds is of MSNBC's Chris Matthews' insistent questioning of talk show host Kevin James over the issue of appeasement. "What did Chamberlain do?" Matthews asks his Hardball guest repeatedly. Mr. James was unable to answer with historical specifics. As it happens, I've met Mr. Matthews, spending an afternoon with him several years ago at his MSNBC office in the company of a friend who was interviewing him for a profile in the Financial Times. The article...

What did Chamberlain do? What is appeasement? And what happened to John McCain's arms? One of the little election year mini-dramas making the Internet rounds is of MSNBC's Chris Matthews' insistent questioning of talk show host Kevin James over the issue of appeasement. "What did Chamberlain do?" Matthews asks his Hardball guest repeatedly. Mr. James was unable to answer with historical specifics. As it happens, I've met Mr. Matthews, spending an afternoon with him several years ago at his MSNBC office in the company of a friend who was interviewing him for a profile in the Financial Times. The article...

How woefully ignorant is the Democratic front-runner on matters of national security, international relations and the intractable conflicts that have plagued the Middle East for decades? The recent foreign policy statements of the former community organizer have demonstrated such incorrigibly poor judgment and appalling naivete that three prominent Democrats have seen fit to distance themselves from Obama’s ludicrous position, which he somehow views as virtuous, of meeting unconditionally with the nations enemies. Senator Joe Biden tells us that Obama, “gave the wrong answer” in last July’s YouTube debate, but he assures us that Obama has, “learned a hell of a...

Bush's comments about appeasement reverberated across the U.S. campaign trail, offering a new platform for Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to sharpen their lines of attack. In the speech, Bush warned that the United States must not negotiate with Iran or radical groups such as Hamas. "Some seem to believe we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along," Bush told the Israeli lawmakers. "We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared:...

So, Dubya goes before the Israel Knesset for their 60th Anniversary and criticizes appeasement: "Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along," the President said to the country's legislative body, "We have heard this foolish delusion before. 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...

John Burroughs is executive director of the New York-based Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy...What is needed is not another UN Security Council resolution strengthening existing sanctions. Rather the Bush administration should talk directly with Iran, and soon, because the U.S.-Iran confrontation is heating up dangerously...In a recent interview, Nobel Peace Prize winner ElBaradei said, "We are moving rapidly toward an abyss." It is not too late to step away.