Since the left is up in arms about Bush daring to speak the truth today about their party of appeasement I figured some words of support from other politicians would be good to highlight like Joe Lieberman:
President Bush got it exactly right today when he warned about the threat of Iran and its terrorist proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah. It is imperative that we reject the flawed and naïve thinking that denies or dismisses the words of extremists and terrorists when they shout “Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” and that holds that — if only we were to sit down and negotiate with these killers — they would cease to threaten us. It is critical to our national security that our commander-in-chief is able to distinguish between America’s friends and America’s enemies, and not confuse the two.
And McCain:
“Yes, there have been appeasers in the past, and the president is exactly right, and one of them is Neville Chamberlain,’’ Mr. McCain told reporters on his campaign bus after a speech in Columbus, Ohio. “I believe that it’s not an accident that our hostages came home from Iran when President Reagan was president of the United States. He didn’t sit down in a negotiation with the religious extremists in Iran, he made it very clear that those hostages were coming home.’’
Asked if he thought that former President Jimmy Carter, who struggled with the hostage crisis, was an appeaser, Mr. McCain replied: “I don’t know if he was an appeaser or not, but he terribly mishandled the Iranian hostage crisis.’’
Asked if he thought Mr. Obama was an appeaser — the Democratic candidate has said he would be willing to meet with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran — Mr. McCain sidestepped and said, “I think that Barack Obama needs to explain why he wants to sit down and talk with a man who is the head of a government that is a state sponsor of terrorism, that is responsible for the killing of brave young Americans, that wants to wipe Israel off the map, who denies the Holocaust. That’s what I think Senator Obama ought to explain to the American people.’’
Later McCain said the following about Obama’s willingness to sit down with Iran:
“I think [it] is an unacceptable position, and shows that Senator Obama does not have the knowledge, the experience, the background to make the kind of judgments that are necessary to preserve this nation’s security.”
All I can say is RIGHT ON! And thankfully McCain didn’t back down from it either. More respect for him now.
This is the Bush I love. A man not afraid to tell it like it is. Anyone who wants to talk to terrorists for any reason and evil regimes such as Iran with NO preconditions is following a policy of appeasement. CNN was quick to pull some “sources” out of their hat that said Bush was referring to Obama and the Democrats. Well, one question. Do they want to talk to Iran with no preconditions? Talk to terrorists?
If the answer is yes then we all know the answer to the million dollar question.
The White House:
UNKNOWN QUESTIONER: There’s some question about his comment here about “some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong” — you know the passage. And he talks about the “false comfort of appeasement.” This is being seen in some quarters as a slam on Senator Obama. Is this in any way directed at Senator Obama?
DANA PERINO, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: It is not. And I would think that all of you who cover these issues and have for a long time have known that there are many who have suggested these types of negotiations with people that President Bush thinks we should not talk to. I understand when you’re running for office you sometimes think the world revolves around you — that is not always true and it is not true in this case.
Q: But, so, not aimed at him — do they include him?
PERINO: He’ll have to speak for himself as to what his policy is and you guys can know it well. This was a speech that the President gave to the Knesset. And this is not a new statement by President Bush. This is long-established United States policy, so it should come as no surprise that President Bush suggests that we should not be talking with these people.
Q: This is part of the election cycle, though — was he stepping into the political cycle?
PERINO: Of course he’s not — the President is President, regardless of an election cycle. And he’s going to be the President of the United States until January 20, 2009. And we are not going to change policy based on the ’08 election. We’re not going to stop talking about the ideals and the values of the United States because there’s an ’08 election. They can fight it out for themselves over there, but this is not new policy that the President announced and it should come as no surprise to anybody that the President would talk about this. He talks about it in almost every interview, and in particular when he’s talking about the issues of Hamas and Hezbollah, al Qaeda, the Taliban, Iran, other state sponsors of terror. It’s long-established United States policy.
Q: But you did say there are others who have enunciated a policy —PERINO: Sure.
Q: — of talk — and he has talked about this. So why shouldn’t it be seen as anything?
PERINO: I’m not going to get into ’08 politics. The speech was not about ’08 politics. If they want to try to make it about ’08 politics — and obviously be helped by the media — so be it. But the President is President of the United States. This is a long-established policy that he has held and that he has talked about all over the world. And you guys have seen it for seven-and-a-half years. It’s not going to change now.
Thankfully the WH is letting his statement stand and let those with a bit of a guilty consciences mull over who he was referring to.
Update
Video of McCain reaction:
See author page