Reason in the Middle East

The Jerusalem Post has an excellent column today by Barry Rubin entitled "Appeasement Redux". Here's how it starts:

We have come full circle. Here is how the last great historical era began, the one we seem to be starting over afresh.

It's January 30, 1933, and here's what the Cleveland Press reports from Washington under the headline, "US Unruffled by Hitler Rise."

"High authorities here regard with complacence Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany... They [express] faith that Hitler would act with moderation... Experts based this belief on past events showing that so-called radical groups usually moderated, once in power."

Read the entire column -- it is excellent.