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When Donald Rumsfeld stands up, and has the utter gall to criticize any American who disagrees with the current administration and label them "appeasers", and likens them to those who failed to stand up to Hitler, it is worth remembering that the US Congress, and Republicans in particular, didn't want a war with Hitler, and stood on the sidelines as Hitler brutally invaded Poland; stood by as France succumbed to the Nazi invasion (hardly surpirising given the 10:1 superiority in tanks and aircraft of the German Army); and watched as London was bombed mercilessly, and stood alone against the Fascist menace. Indeed, it was Republicans who tried to prevent Roosevelt from even giving arms and support to England, as it stood alone against the Hitler war machine. It was only when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, more than 2 years after the aggression and war started by Hitler, that America joined the war, and, even then, it was Hitler who declared war on America, not the US who declared war on Hitler. We would have been quite content to wage war against only the Japanese, even then. Had Hitler not made the fatal mistake of declaring war against the US (because the Japanese were his allies, and he mistakenly believed that they would defeat America).So when this totally arrogant individual, Donald Rumsfeld, who's never actually fought in any war, or killed anyone in combat, who has never admitted a single mistake of the multitudinous and egregious ones he's actually made, and who sent too few troops into Iraq, so that all our current troubles stem from that terrible decision (against the advice of his own military advisors) starts criticizing Americans (the vast majority, in fact) for our temerity in saying the war was a mistake, and equating our opinions with "appeasers" he should remember just who were the original "appeasers" of Hitler. They were Republicans! And this lying ( "I don't think you'll ever find a quote from me where I was unduly optimistic about the Iraqi War"), uncontrite, arrogant individual, who has presided over the worst military planning since Vietnam, has the utter gall to criticize us!
It is worth remembering the words of Edward R. Murrow in 1954:
"We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof, and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law.
We will not walk in fear - one, of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of un-reason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men; not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were - for the moment - unpopular."
