In the histories of the run up to World War II, the word “Appeasement” has been used to describe the policy of the government of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain who made political, and territorial concessions to Adolf Hitler to avoid conflict.

The prime example of this policy was the Munich Agreement of September 1938 in which England and France signed an agreement to force Czechoslovakia to turn over its eastern border region called the Sudetenland to Germany. By the spring of 1939, all of Czechoslovakia had been absorbed into the German Reich.

At the time Chamberlin was rightly criticized by Winston Churchill and others for signing the agreement with Hitler to avoid war. There are historians who feel however that Chamberlain also was attempting to buy time at Munich for Britain’s rearmament which in fact did place that nation in a better position by September 1939. However, that is another issue.

We have a similar situation today. For reasons that many of us cannot understand, both the Obama and the Biden administrations appeased Iran in hopes that Iran would abide by the terms of the nuclear deal that it signed with the Obama administration. It was near the end of that administration’s term in office that it shipped bales of U.S. cash to buy Iran’s compliance.

Since Oct. 7, over 160 attacks have been made on U.S. installation in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan by Iranian client organizations. While there were several rather desultory retaliatory attacks on Iranian client positions in the region, inexplicably they were on warehouses and unmanned positions that were of little strategic value.

Some claim, and I am in full agreement, that the United States is also appeasing Iran because it fears that more aggressive attacks on Iran would result in a regional war in the middle east that would involve the United States. I think Biden or whomever is running the show have an unrealistic fear of a war or even of a third world war which is clouding their judgment.

Despite hand wringing over possible Iranian retaliatory actions by Democrats and the liberal media the January 2020 killing of Gen. Qassem Soleiman commander of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, by a drone attack had a scant adverse impact in the region and actually caused Iran to take a lower profile. This is because Iran, for all its bluster and threats by the Mullahs, understands that a direct confrontation with the United States will result in the destruction of its military and its nuclear program.

This is why today it has chosen to hide behind client groups.

It was only the recent attack on an American position in Jordan resulting in the deaths of three American service persons that led the Biden administration to take more aggressive action. A disturbing fact about this attack was that it was launched by what was apparently an Iranian drone that appeared over the base at nearly the same time an American drone was expected to return, leading some to believe that the Iranians may have learned how to program their drones to mimic ours. Iran of course denied any complicity in the drone attack.

On Friday, Feb. 2, U.S. forces began a series of attacks against sites in Iraq and Syria used by Iranian forces and Iranian clients. In a statement President Biden said “Our response began today. It will continue at times and places of our choosing. The United States does not seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world. But let all those who might seek to do us harm know this: if you harm Americans, we will respond.”

Those are tough words but last week the Biden administration and its Defense Secretary continued to make clear that Washington does not seek a wider conflict or war with Iran indicating that it is unlikely that attacks will be made in Iran itself. Personally, I think we should have kept the Iranians guessing.

Although its stature as a military power is nowhere near ours, Iran is a threat to world peace.

Its pursuit of nuclear weapons is a “Sword of Damocles” hanging over the Middle East and the world. Depending on who you chose to believe Iran is either within reach of enough fissionable nuclear material to build a bomb or may already have enough for two or three weapons. Either way it is enough to give any thinking person pause keeping in mind that Iranian leadership has threatened to destroy Israeli cities and to annihilate Israel altogether. Also, what might they have in store for the “Great Satan” in the United States?

I believe that the time is fast approaching when we will have to stop appeasing this rogue nation and resolve to destroy its nuclear program. Would an attack on Iran trigger a response from China or Russia? Frankly, I suspect that both nations would probably be happy to have a loose cannon like Iran removed from the nuclear equation.

Thomas Kirkpatrick Sr. is a Silver Creek resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com