Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Change For Our Time

Obamberlain 1

The depiction of Barack Obama as a retread of Neville Chamberlain is now widespread, and is fairly apt. Both men seemed unable to grasp the evil nature of the tyrants they dealt with, and each made an effort to appease the enemy as the ominous nature of the approaching global conflict became more and more evident.

But in some ways the comparison between Chamberlain and Obama is an insult to the former. Mr. Chamberlain, after all, proposed to appease Adolf Hitler by dismembering another country, not his own. He never offered to surrender his homeland to the enemy, nor did he promote the de facto abolition of national borders and the importation of Nazis into his own country.

Obamberlain 2At Munich in 1938, Neville Chamberlain knew that Britain was completely unprepared to go to war with Nazi Germany. Some historians believe that Chamberlain was aware of what inevitably had to come, and was only trying to postpone it. If the British were to defend themselves against the German onslaught, they would have to buy time to rearm after neglecting their military throughout the 1930s. A war with Germany in 1938 would have been even more disastrous than it turned out to be two years later.

As inept and ineffectual as he was, the prime minister was still dedicated to the welfare of his country, and did what he thought best to preserve it.

In contrast, Barack Hussein Obama has on numerous occasions indicated that he despises his own country and would like to see it folded into a new international order. Rather than enhance its military power, he would gut its defenses in order to fund his domestic socialist megalomania.

So we could use a Neville Chamberlain in the United States right now — he would be an improvement.

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Geert Wilders has recently made headlines by publicly comparing Barack Obama and Neville Chamberlain. Here’s the article from NU.nl, as translated by our Flemish correspondent VH.

Wilders compares Obama to Chamberlain

In an interview with NU.nl, PVV-leader Geert Wilders refers to the policies of U.S. President Barack Obama with regard to the Muslim world. “He has something of a Chamberlain in him. Someone who does not have a clear view on who the enemy is, and rather courts him,” Wilders said.

Neville Chamberlain was the British prime minister who in 1938 signed the Munich Agreement with Hitler and Mussolini [and the French PM Édouard Daladier —translator] in favor of world peace. The agreement in which the “great powers” accepted the annexation of the Czech Sudetenland by Germany [and indirectly handed over Czechoslovakia, while Chamberlain arranged a separate peace treaty between the UK and Germany with Hitler: “My good friends, this is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. And now I recommend you to go home and sleep quietly in your beds.” —translator]. A year later Germany invaded Poland, and with that, the Second World War began.

Tough comparison

“It’s quite a tough comparison, but it is a dangerous, naïve and irresponsible policy he produces,” Wilders said.

The politician has been irritated for a long time by the policy of Dutch PM Balkenende on this point. “People like Balkenende and Obama are out to hold hands together and sing songs under the Christmas tree, all year long.”
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“They close their eyes to the big problems Islamization carries with it.”

New course

The leader of the PVV is deeply concerned about the new course America is embarked on. “That the most powerful man in the world is proceeding with a policy is much worse than the default Mister Balkenende follows.”

Wilders also refers to the outreach President Obama made to the Muslim world in his Cairo speech last June 4, in which he said he wanted to make a new start in his relations with the Islamic world.

Europe

Geert Wilders certainly believes in a good trans-Atlantic relationship with America. “I believe more in political ties with America than giving our power away to Europe.”

“But we must not let ourselves be put under pressure on such issues as the admission of Turkey to the EU or the prolongation of the mission in Afghanistan.”

Healthy distance

Wilders is of the opinion that in a political sense we should keep America at a healthy distance. “On the other hand, America is like Israel, a part of our cultural identity.”

“But we should not nod and bend to them politically. Especially not when the government is led by someone with a dubious policy. And I say that as an understatement.”

No improvement

In 1999 Wilders spoke for the first time [in parliament] on “the great threat of Muslim extremism and the Islamization of the free West.” Now, ten years later, he sees no improvement.

“If you had told me ten years ago that there would be forty to fifty Sharia courts in England and the Dutch government would be examining the same for the Netherlands, few people would have believed it. This therefore shows that in many areas it has only become worse,” he argues.


Further resources:


Hat tip: Tuan Jim.

Many thanks to VH for the second of the two images used above.

10 comments:

laine said...

I'll agree with the part about: "“People like Balkenende and Obama are out to hold hands together and sing songs ... all year long” (like Kumbaya)

but it's certainly not going to be "under the Christmas tree".

Fjordman said...

I've been saying for a long time that people such as Blair, Sarkozy, Obama and the like are far worse than Neville Chamberlain ever was. Even he wasn't stupid or evil enough to mass-import enemies to his country, but our current stock of so-called leaders do so every day.

Anonymous said...

Go Geert!!!! I seriously love him. What an amazing person.

Tregonsee said...

Unlike Neville Chamberlain, the president appears to be in excellent health and will no doubt serve out his full term. Should tragedy strike, we can be secure in the knowledge that VP Biden will bring his judgment and maturity to the office.

Cugel said...

Obama is like Chamberlain in at least one respect: both place(d) too much credence in words on paper. ... Hell, any mendacious tyrant can scribble, but what does he do with his guns?

WAKE UP said...

Chamberlain was an old-school gentleman, who made the error of assuming that others would behave honourably. Obama is making the same mistake.

But that's where the resemblance ends: Obama seems to have no sense of patriotism, nor any love for his country, and the lack of those attributes make him no gentleman.

Anonymous said...

Poor old Neville Chamberlain, always linked to appeasement - rather unfairly in my view. It was Chamberlain, once disappointed, gave a 24 hour ultimatum to Germany, and when the reply was not satisfactory, immediately declared war. Who among our present clutch of politicians, would have the courage to declare war against a really powerful state such as Germany?

I will leave it to Churchill, who in his 1940 eulogy for Chamberlain, had nothing but praise for him.

"It fell to Neville Chamberlain in one of the supreme crises of the world to be contradicted by events, to be disappointed in his hopes, and to be deceived and cheated by a wicked man. But what were these hopes in which he was disappointed? What were these wishes in which he was frustrated? What was that faith that was abused? They were surely among the most noble and benevolent instincts of the human heart-the love of peace, the toil for peace, the strife for peace, the pursuit of peace, even at great peril, and certainly to the utter disdain of popularity or clamour. Whatever else history may or may not say about these terrible, tremendous years, we can be sure that Neville Chamberlain acted with perfect sincerity according to his lights and strove to the utmost of his capacity and authority, which were powerful, to save the world from the awful, devastating struggle in which we are now engaged. This alone will stand him in good stead as far as what is called the verdict of history is concerned."

DP111: And when that failed, declared total war against Germany, knowing full well of what would ensue from another world war.

Anonymous said...

The difference between politicians before WWII and the present set of politicians in th US and Europe, is that the former believed in Western civilisation, and its obvious superiority over any other. The present set of politicians are socialist internationalists- they do not believe in the West, and they do not see it as having a geographic or cultural presence. With such liberal beliefs, it is impossible for them to implement any immigration policy to keep out unassimalables, or for that matter to restrict free health care to citizens only.

In the UK, where the disease is at its most advanced, all people - asylum seekers, illegals, criminal illegals, all are entitled to the same level of health and social care, as the citizen. I lie. The criminal illegal or the gypsy, is now legally entitled to better health care and social provision then the citizen tax payer, as he is a member of the disadvantaged community.

PS: The NHS started out to provide basic health care for the people of Britain at a time of great need. As time went by, it became obvious that the population at large, could only have better health if all were housed in better conditions. This then led to the ever expanding social welfare state, which is now totally out of control.
The Obama health care package is like the NHS, the thin end of the wedge, where taxpayers will eventually have to pay more and more to fund the necessary life style(for health reasons obviously), of the habitually non-tax paying segment of society.

Homophobic Horse said...

Obama has people like foreign policy evil genius Zbigniew Brzezinski advising him. The American establishment will have a deeper plan and it's mascot Obama need not even understand the words he reads out on the teleprompter. If you ask me I think the powers of the world all have a special relationship with Iran.

Homophobic Horse said...
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