The Failed Policy of Appeasement Throughout the Ages

Lenny Cacchio

Lenny Cacchio has a good piece on appeasement and how it has failed time and time again:

On a recent tour of the internet I was aghast at the revisionist view of the blundering exploits of a certain Neville Chamberlain of Great Britain. Chamberlain was the Prime Minister prior to Winston Churchill, and he believed that Adolph Hitler could be bought off with pieces of someone else’s real estate. He proudly called the policy of putting a slice of Czechoslovakia under the Nazi jackboot “Appeasement”, and he congratulated himself for bringing home “peace in our time.”

Some well-meaning people actually believe that Chamberlain’s policy failed not because it was based on a flawed theory, but because the evil Winston Churchill sabotaged it. Supposedly, if Chamberlain’s view had prevailed, World War II would have been prevented, millions of lives would have been saved, and I suppose der Fuehrer would have been given the accolades he so richly deserved.

Einstein reputedly said that “only two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.” Whether Einstein made that clever comment is a question of debate, but history does bear out the sympathies expressed. Perhaps the real reason for such revisions of history is an attempt to deprecate the war on terror by removing the historical legitimacy to the doctrine appeasement that proponents of current policy cite to justify their position.

Indeed the doctrine of appeasement has a history of failure that long precedes World War II. Pilate attempted to use it and discovered that it only served to tease the appetite for more blood. Apparently Pilate could not understand why the corrupt religious leadership of the day hated Jesus with such extreme virulence. Even though, after questioning Jesus, he admitted to finding no fault in him, he expended his energy trying to pass the judgment to someone else (like Herod), and when that failed he tried other means to wiggle out of rendering a decision. One of those means was a pitiful and dishonorable attempt at appeasement, and like Britain and France taking out a piece of Czechoslovakia’s hide in an attempt to save their own, he learned to his disgust that tearing the skin of innocent man cannot mitigate a mind filled with bloodlust.

Imagine this scene. A judge admits to the prosecutor and the accusers – and everyone else within earshot -- that there is no evidence of guilt. “I have found no fault in this man,” he said. And then, “I will therefore chastise him.” (Luke 23:14, 16) This he did in hopes of satisfying an insatiable hatred. It did not work. It never does. Chamberlain proved it. Pilate proved it. I pray God our generation doesn’t have to prove it again.