appeasment- sound familliar?

Scenario A. A man walks into a field with a briefcase where a little girl is picking flowers. His name is Mr. Nari. He then opens up his briefcase and pulls out the components for a gun. As he is reconstructing his weapon, another man, Mr. O, walks up and asks Mr. Nari what he’s doing. Mr. Nari responds by informing him of his intention to shoot the little girl. Mr. O is alarmed and asks Mr. Nari, “What do you want?” “Just to talk, that’s all,” responds Mr. Nari. Mr. O is relieved. All he wanted was to talk! So Mr. O obliges him and begins delivering a powerful argument against shooting people. Meanwhile, Mr. Nari nods his head in agreement as he keeps on working at putting together his gun. Soon he springs the last part into place, raises his weapon, and shoots the little girl dead. “What did you do that for!?” demands Mr. O. To which Mr. Nari replies, “You idiot, I told you that was what I was going to do and you sat here chatting away, giving me the time I needed to pull it off.”

Scenario B. A man walks into a field with a briefcase where a little girl is picking flowers. His name is Mr. Nari. He then opens up his briefcase and pulls out the components for a gun. As he is reconstructing his weapon, another man, Mr. M, walks up and asks Mr. Nari what he’s doing. Mr. Nari responds by informing him of his intention to shoot the little girl. Mr. M is alarmed and pulls out a gun of his own and points it at Mr. Nari. “Don’t even think about it,” warns Mr. M. “Whoa, relax, I just want to talk,” says Mr. Nari. “Throw that away, and then we’ll talk,” replied Mr. M. Mr. Nari pauses, stares at the gun pointed at him, then reluctantly obliges. And so they talk.

Scenario A is appeasement, scenario B is diplomacy with preconditions. Most tyrants with diabolical ambition have complex schemes that require a lot of time to acheive. To acquire the time needed, they often use diplomacy as a stalling mechanism. So long as they are giving up nothing in the talks, they are getting something for nothing. That is why the word “appeasement” is used to describe these sorts of situations: the well-intentioned head of state gives up something the tyrant needs (time) for nothing in hopes he’ll change his mind. History has shown this to be ineffective. That is the purpose of preconditions. A precondition is something the leader must give up before formal diplomacy is engaged.

http://fredshelm.wordpress.com/2008/06/05/barack-the-black-hitler/