Who's naive?

On CNN, Lou Dobbs has been interviewing a gentleman, Robert Kagen, who is with the Carnegie Endowment for Peace (I might have the group’s name wrong). He made an interesting comment that I think deserves some deeper examination.

Mr. Kagen stated that France and Germany, due to their previous experiences, have begun to believe that nations should be moving beyond military power. He states that the concept of a non-militaristic world is supported by both the leadership and the citizens of the two countries.

The US is often of accused by other members of the world community of a sort of naïve idealism. As a nation we tend to believe that any problem or issue can be solved through hard work, forthrightness and generosity. I’ll admit that there are times when we are naïve. But we also can adjust to the idea that difficult situations can require difficult decisions to be made. And despite our naivety we don’t back away from making the difficult decisions.

But the French and Germans are showing signs of delusional naivety. And they are trying to force those delusions back on us. To think that a conflict with a belligerent bully can always be solved through dialogue is absurd. There are times when he must be restrained by the use of force. Some people just don’t understand anything except force.

If the French and the Germans want to believe that continued dialogue with Saddam will bring “peace in our time”, they can be my guest. Just get the hell out of the way when the tanks start rolling.