Neville Chamberlain / President Biden (AP)
The word “appeasement” normally has a negative connotation in modern times. In modern times, no one likes to have appease, appeaser, and appeasement used to describe their behavior or actions.
However, at one time, “Appeasement” was considered a sophisticated term that only the learned, wise, and erudite would use. Learned, wise, and sagacious elites such as Neville Chamberlain, British Prime Minister from May 1937 to May 1940 who along with his Cabinet, developed a formal policy of “Appeasement” as a good and noble thing to avoid a repeat of the bloodshed of the Great War. Until September 2, 1939, many felt appeasing the German leader was the right thing to do.
Some argue that Chamberlain has been treated poorly by history, that he was actually doing the right thing. I think the people of Czechoslovakia and Poland and all who suffered from the worldwide designs of Germany and Imperial Japan should be given the opportunity to respond to that view first.
Chamberlain and the Tories were painfully aware of the losses of World War I and wanted, at all costs, to avoid repeating this cataclysm. It was Churchill (looked at like Trump by the Romney-like clones in the Conservative Party at the time) and the Labour Party (starting in 1937) that preached for re-armament and readiness.
Chamberlain did perform a historic role before he died in November 1940 by backing and protecting Churchill against those Romney-like clones in the Conservative Party who shortly tried a coup against Churchill after he took office in May 1940. But never again was the word appeasement looked upon with fondness.
“Proportionate”
The Biden Team is looking like Chamberlain, Carter, and Obama all in one as the world catches on fire. Having worked as a professional, career civilian during the Obama years, carrying out my sworn duties as an agnostic, apolitical professional on many speeches, executive orders, and press releases with them, I’m a little bit familiar with their uber sophistication and nuance on their public-facing wording.
The Biden Team and all the robotic automatons they have doing Press Conferences have adopted two words regarding the raging and growing violence across the Middle East and the world. Words they likely will regret. These words are “proportionate” and “degrade”.
The word proportionate appears twice in the Department of Defense (DOD) dictionary (the source of truth on all terms DODish). Neither time as a primary word, but as an adjective. The Administration has browbeaten the Israelis with virtue signaling, lecturing, and religion of “proportionality.”
Over 1,400 Israelis were butchered by Hamas on October 7, 2023, and the Biden Team wants a “proportionate” response. There is a faint trace of the spirit and meaning of this in the Laws of Land Warfare.
The Biden Team is absurd, though, in their application of this term. If Hamas shoots at the Israelis and misses, the Israelis are only allowed to shoot back and miss? The Israelis are only allowed to kill 1,400 Hamas terrorists as they purge Gaza of Hamas?
Hamas needs to be destroyed, and at the same time, measures to protect un-aligned Gazans should be taken to the extent possible, but War is War, and there is a war raging.
“Degrade”
Degrade appears eight times in the DOD Dictionary, mostly as a verb, never as a primary word. Central Command has used the word “degrade” routinely when describing the nine or so airstrikes so far on the Houthis. I don’t believe I’ve seen the words “destroy”, “neutralize”, or “eliminate” the Houthis. I’ve been in combat several times and helped prepare the directives and orders, I don’t remember a primary description in the “Objective” portion stating “degrade” only. It was normally destroy, defeat, neutralize, crush, or eviscerate.
The Central Command tweets are looking like ChatGPT output. From the beginning of the first counter-punch on January 11, 2024 they have used the same word “degrade” to describe the purpose of the Coalition strikes on the Houthis. Reality check – we don’t put our military professionals in harm’s way to “graze”, “nick”, or “shoot in the general direction of” bad peoples. They should be destroying Houthis or we should go home.
The intellectual and moral deficit of the Biden Team is coming home to roost
KJP said the quiet part out loud when she said three brave Army Reservists were “military folks” who died fighting for the Administration. She said what she meant, she meant what she said and she lives in an alternate universe not to know the difference between “The Administration” and “The Country”. Out of the mouth often comes what’s in the heart.
Tower 22 Planet Labs/AP
The Biden Team, starting with Secretary Blinken, is looking haggard and overwhelmed. Having resolve, clarity, and a moral starting point helps one deal with the evil and chaos of life, especially when encumbering the seats at the White House.
Resolve, clarity and a moral starting point appear to be void from almost anyone on the Biden Team. Now that three Americans have been killed in a remote and under-defended base camp, we’ll find out what “Proportionate” and “Degrade” really mean and whether these two words will join the term “Appeasement” in the vocabulary of shame.
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