Coincidence of Dates......

This is Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. A day of repentance and the New Year. So, a Happy and prosperous year to my Jewish Friends.

It is also the Seventieth anniversary of the Munich Accord of 1938. Briefly, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returned to London with a Treaty signed by Adolph Hitler.

The British Prime Minister proclaimed that he had brought "Peace in our Time…Peace with Honor," .........he was hailed as a Hero for his Diplomacy. He sat down with Hitler and Mussolini without "pre-conditions", and triumphed.

As History shows, it was a short lived "triumph". Hitler played him for the Fool, and embarked on swallowing most of Europe in rise.

Chamberlain was an Appeaser. He felt, strike that, Knew that problems between Countries could be resolved by communication and trust.

Martin Gilbert, Churchill's biographer, wrote that "Appeasement was rooted in the belief that human nature could not be entirely overwhelmed by evil, that even the most dangerous looking situation could be ameliorated and that the most irascible politician could be placated, if treated with respect."

Churchill himself, before the House of Commons in 1938, spoke that Chamberlain didn't "understand" what he was doing, and that Great Britain "has sustained a defeat without a war…."

Chamberlain was a shrewd businessman, to be fair, but he didn't have the healthy cynicism necessary to deal with people of Hitler and Mussolinis ilk.

The tie in to today? Appeasement, and naivete, and as John McCain stated in the debate, "The Senator doesn't understand....."

That same year, 1938, Hitler spoke at Nuremberg, saying, ""I am in no way willing that here in the heart of Germany a second Palestine should be permitted to arise. The poor Arabs are defenseless and deserted. The Germans in Czechoslovakia are neither defenseless, nor are they deserted, and people should take notice of that."

I do so try....not really hard with my apprentice writing skills....to keep my posts short, so if you'd like more information, just google "Munich Accord"...lots of extremely interesting History for buffs.....

That being said, what bothers me most is my Belief that Time is a Wheel, that Those who do not Learn from History are destined to repeat it. We truly are in interesting Times. I'd prefer them not to become Horrific.

Munich Accord, Rosh Hashana, Palestine, the Sudeten Germans in Czechoslovakia, Hitler, Chamberlain........If History is to serve us well, I'd say that both Churchill and McCain spoke words much more deep than their mere utterance.

"He doesn't Understand."

We need to Understand that.

Have a happy.
Wollf