Don't know much about history--Obama's continuing ignorance

Andrew Malcolm:

Apparently history was not a strong suit in college days for Barry Obama -- or his highly-paid speechwriters.

In his 2,106 word aspirational tone poem from the Capitol steps at Monday's official inauguration, Obama called for many people to do many things and vowed a myriad of vows, already faded in the memory of millions -- as usually happens to inaugurals and State of the Union shopping lists. We published a complete address text and C-SPAN video right here.

Among those 2,100 words, four shockers leapt out at the eyes and ears of many not in the American news media.

"Peace in our time."

In a surprisingly brief section on foreign policy, Obama said, "Peace in our time requires the constant advance of those principles that our common creed describes: tolerance and opportunity, human dignity and justice."

When initially made on Sept. 30, 1938, by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, those words were destined to become quite possibly the most notoriously naive and dishonored diplomatic statement by a statesman of the modern era.

Chamberlain was a famously aloof politician. He was raised by a single parent always to be reserved, rational, distrusting of emotion. That might have been difficult for Chamberlain 27,146 afternoons ago as he alighted triumphantly from a tiny plane returning from Germany.

Chamberlain had witnessed World War I and was a firm believer in the policy of appeasement of aggressor nations to avoid a repeat horror. With Nazi Germany making warlike statements about seizing a strip of former German land then within Czechoslovakia, Chamberlain met Chancellor Adolph Hitler in Munich.

Chamberlain approved the Nazi seizure of lands from a democratic Czechoslovakia in return for Hitler's promise to forsake further seizures. Good luck with that. The British leader returned to London waving the signature of "Herr Hitler" and that night told a happy crowd:

"My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Go home and get a nice quiet sleep."

At that moment German troops were moving into the Sudetenland. Months later, with more time to prepare, Hitler seized the rest of Czechoslovakia and then Poland, ultimately even turning on his Soviet ally too.

...

I think history must have been a course Obama failed to crack a book in.  But you would think that someone on his staff was at least familiar with the most famous words of a failed policy of appeasement, especially when Obama is pushing the same policy in the Middle East with people who have the same aggressive intentions when it comes to Israel.