John McCain, Meet James Baker : Dispatches from the Culture Wars

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Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of Michigan Citizens for Science and co-founder of The Panda's Thumb. He has written for such publications as The Bard, Skeptic and Reports of the National Center for Science Education, spoken in front of many organizations and conferences, and appeared on nationally syndicated radio shows and on C-SPAN. Ed is also a Fellow with the Center for Independent Media and the host of Declaring Independence, a one hour weekly political talk show on WPRR in Grand Rapids, Michigan.(static)

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John McCain, Meet James Baker

Posted on: May 26, 2008 9:02 AM, by Ed Brayton

One of the things that drives me absolutely crazy about our political system is watching politicians make a huge deal out of things they know are not a big deal and make arguments that they know are stupid. The perfect example at the moment is John McCain's (and Bush's) absolutely idiotic argument that talking to our enemies is "appeasing" them and that it's "irresponsible" to hold diplomatic talks with "rogue nations." It's utter bullshit and they know it's utter bullshit, but there's a subset of absolute morons in this country to whom such "tough" - read: utterly stupid - talk sounds convincing. Below the fold, video of James Baker, Secretary of State under the first President Bush, shredding this ridiculous argument.

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Re appeasement.

Many of the right wing fucktards who shout appeasement and point to Neville Chamberlain are totally ignorant as to the reason why Chamberlain and appeasement are associated with each other. The fact that Chamberlain met with Hitler was not appeasement. Appeasement was the act of handing over the Sudetenland to Germany for a piece of paper without a shot being fired.

Posted by: SLC | May 26, 2008 9:51 AM

And if some Americans get themselves held hostage somewhere, do you really want Mayor Mc Cheese doing the negotiation?

Terrorists: If you don't give us what we want we'll kill a hostage or two.
Mayor McCheese: Sorry I can't talk to you, that whould be APPEASEMENT...
Hostage: Oh my god! Just to it, they're not kidding, they'll kill us all.
Mayor McCheese: ... as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, in 1938, Neville Chamberlin just gave into Adolf Hitler...
[Sound of Machinegun fire] -SJ

Posted by: DingoJack | May 26, 2008 10:16 AM

Not to mention the fact that the only reason the "surge" worked is because our military met with and negotiated with various Sunni and Shi'ite militia groups and made numerous promises to them in exchange for a cease-fire.

Posted by: Wes | May 26, 2008 11:55 AM

I was ready to vote for McCain a few months back. Since then, he's just about talked me out of it. Between this appeasement nonsense, and his absolutely asinine statement that he'd like to expel the Russian Federation from the G8 (and then admit India, but not China), I can't take much more from him.

Posted by: Scott | May 26, 2008 12:33 PM

So, we shouldn't have negotiated with the North Vietnamese for the release of McCain and his fellow POWs when we withdrew from Vietnam? The North Vietnamese were, after all, our enemies.

Posted by: Dr X | May 26, 2008 12:52 PM

Refusing to engage in diplomacy is a willful shirking of responsibility. Period.

Posted by: Julie Stahlhut | May 26, 2008 1:56 PM

My favorite interview with Baker of late talked about how he's gotten utter crap from the "war is super plus good" crowd about not going to Baghdad with Bush I. To quote him, "I don't hear that anymore."

Posted by: gex | May 27, 2008 4:51 PM