There is a belief that evil is dark. But this metaphor is imprecise. Evil is actually intensely bright. So painfully bright that people look away from it. Many even deny its existence. Why? Because once people acknowledge its existence, they know that they have to confront it. And most people prefer not to confront evil.
That is what led to World War II. Many in the West denied the darkness of Nazism. They looked the other way when that evil could have been stopped, and then appeased it as it became stronger. Many also believe that these days, the world is reliving 1938. The British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, went to Munich too negotiate with Adolf Hitler. He left believing Hitler’s promises of peace in exchange for Germany being allowed to annex large parts of Czechoslovakia. Upon returning to England, Chamberlain announced “peace for our time.”
The American and European negotiations with Iran have so precisely mirrored 1938 that one has to wonder how anyone could not see it. The Nazi regime’s great hatred was Jews. Iran’s great hatred is the Jewish state. The Nazis’ greatest aim was to exterminate the Jews of Europe. Iran’s greatest aim is to exterminate the Jewish state. Nazi Germany hated the West and its freedoms. The Islamic Republic of Iran hates the West and its freedoms. Germany sought to dominate Europe. Iran seeks to dominate the Middle East and the Muslim world. And exactly as Britain and France appeased Nazi Germany, the same two countries along with the United States have chosen to appease Iran.
Today, people mock Neville Chamberlain. But just change the names and it becomes painfully obvious that the world is living through a repetition of Munich. Substitute the Islamic Republic of Iran for Nazi Germany, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for Adolf Hitler, Barack Obama and John Kerry for Neville Chamberlain, Israel for Czechoslovakia and for Europe’s Jews and the increasingly unsafe world of 2015 with the increasingly unsafe world of 1938.
In fact, there is considerably less defense for the Iran agreement – which awards Iran 150 billion dollars in currently frozen assets and the right to keep its nuclear program – than there was for the Munich agreement. Prior to 1938, Hitler had not publicly proclaimed his aim to annihilate Europe’s Jews. Yet, Iran has been proclaiming its intention to annihilate the Jewish state for decades. There were no massive “Death to America” demonstrations in Germany as there regularly are in Iran. In 1938, Germany had not been responsible for terror around the world as Iran is now. Nor was Germany responsible for the death of more than a thousand Americans as Iran has been.
The Neville Chamberlains of 2015 defend the agreement with Iran on two grounds – that the only alternative is war and that this agreement has the capacity to bring Iran into “the community of nations.”
Members of Congress who vote to uphold this agreement will be viewed as Neville Chamberlain is viewed. The Left likes to talk about being on “the right side” of history. Enabling Iran to keep its nuclear facilities while gaining access to hundreds of billions of dollars is to be on the wrong side of history.
The question remains of whether any member of Congress would vote for this agreement if Iran were situated at the American border. Very few people have the chance to do something about the greatest evil of their time. Members of the U.S. Congress have that chance. That should trump loyalty to Barack Obama and his appeasement of the greatest evil of this time.