Appeasement Doesn't Work: A Labor Day Warning

Mary Laney's a columnist with the Chicago Sun-Times. She provided an appropriate Labor Day warning in yesterday's edition on the danger of appeasing today's Islamo-fascist forces worldwide:

It's Labor Day. Time to honor yourselves, the workers of America. Time for parades and relaxation -- and time for a little reflection on history and the historic times we're living through.

We are at war. Our country is on an elevated security alert. Islamofascists are poised to hurt us, kill us and kill those they call infidels. We have a president who has pushed for the Patriot Act to protect us. Under President Bush, the nation now has the tools to intercept the international conversations of those who, for years, have been plotting heinous ways to kill Americans and others around the world. We also have a system of tracing international monies that would fund terrorist activities.

Yet there are those in this nation -- in the Senate, the ACLU, the far left -- who have opposed these protective measures. They've stated that the Patriot Act infringes on our right to privacy. They've stated that we should rely on diplomacy, more talks, more meetings and more appeasement of these rabid enemies.

This brings me to the history we ought reflect upon today. In a recent speech before the national convention of the American Legion, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld likened the opposition to today's war against Islamofascism to the 1930s appeasement of the Nazis. Both regimes are nihilists. Both want to rule the world.

In his speech, Rumsfeld quoted the late Sen. William Borah, who -- after learning that Hitler had invaded Poland -- said, "Lord, if only I could have talked with Hitler, all this might have been avoided." This is not dissimilar to Sen. John Kerry stating that if he were president we wouldn't be at war.

Today's appeasers believe that they can simply talk with these Islamofascists and all will be peaceful. As Winston Churchill said long ago, the appeaser seems to feel that if he feeds the alligator enough, "the alligator will eat him last."

We've seen what these Islamofascists are capable of doing. We're nearing the anniversary of 9/11 when they did what up until then had been unthinkable: flying passenger planes filled with men, women and children into buildings.

We've seen what they've done in Spain, blowing up train cars filled with civilians.

We've seen what they've done in England, blowing up buses and subways.

We've seen what they've done in Bali with their bombs.

We've seen what they planned to do with American planes taking off from England and bound for America.

Today is Labor Day, a day to honor yourselves for all the hard work you've done to make America the great nation it is today. But, have no doubt about this: There are Islamofascists who want to destroy you and all you've worked for.

They're not looking to take your jobs. They're looking to take your lives.

The president of Iran has openly said he wants to destroy America and wipe Israel off the face of the earth. He has defied the United Nations in continuing to build nuclear strength.

America has not had diplomatic relations with Iran since that country seized our embassy in Tehran and held our people hostage. Time for a little history here. Jimmy Carter was president when our embassy was ambushed by Muslim terrorists. Instead of taking action immediately, he wrote a letter to the Ayatollah Khomeini telling the ayatollah that the action would not harm relations with America.

That was the beginning of the strengthening of Islamofascism. America was perceived as weak. The ayatollah stated that America was a paper tiger without a bite. How appropriate to hear last week that Carter had expressed an interest in meeting with former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami when he visited Chicago over the weekend.

As you read this and rest on this Labor Day, do not forget that thousands of miles away, in the backwaters of the world, in Iraq and Afghanistan, there stand American men and women who are not resting. Instead, they are standing at the barricades, fighting the Islamofascists over there so that we will not have to meet them here, in our streets.

Before you grill that burger, stop for a moment and say a prayer for them.

They labor hard on this Labor Day 2006.

Yes, we've seen what they've done -- and it's ghastly. Thanks to the American service-personnel who labor continuously to protect this nation. And thanks to Secretary Rumsfeld, who is right to point out the similarities between today's enemies and the ones America defeated in the 1940s.