Steve Pearce: “all of history--and indeed, all of life--is a series of choices. International relations--and our national security--are…”

“all of history--and indeed, all of life--is a series of choices. International relations--and our national security--are mostly about choices. The world chose to watch when Hitler published his blueprint for genocide in Mein Kampf. The world also chose to watch as Hitler took power on January 30, 1933; directing the boycott of Jewish businesses and opening the first concentration camp just 6 weeks later. The world continued to stand by and watch as Hitler breached the Treaty of Versailles while denying Jews their fundamental rights through the Nuremberg Race Laws. Then, on September 30, 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain hailed ``peace for our time'' after appeasing Hitler in Munich. Thirty-four years later, a terrorist massacre at the 1972 Munich Olympics launched a new era of appeasement. The world met the terrorists' murderous ambitions with an invitation to the negotiating table. Within weeks of the Munich Massacre, the German government let three jailed terrorists go to secure the release of a hijacked Lufthansa jet. When terrorism first came to American soil with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, our government treated it as a police matter rather than what it was: an act of war. Then came the Khobar Towers bombing in 1996 and the U.S.S. Cole attack in 2000. America--and the world--chose to stand by and watch.…”