Obama Response To Bush's "Appeasement" Statement

Barack Obama supposedly "aggressively" responded to Bush's "appeasement" statement regarding "some" people's approach to dealing with terrorists. Bush cites a "senator" who commented that he wished he could have "talked" to Hitler, that maybe he (the senator) could have averted The Holocaust.

"We have heard this foolish delusion before," Bush said. "As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is -- the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."

Obama's response: calling it "sad" that Bush used the speech to take a partisan shot. "George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists, and the president's extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel," he said in a statement.

Today, Obama said: "They're trying to scare you and trying to keep you from seeing the truth," Obama told a cheering crowd, "and the reason is they can't win a foreign policy argument on the merits."

The Republican resounse: "These are serious issues that deserve a serious debate, not the same tired partisan rants we heard today from Sen. Obama. Sen. Obama has pledged to unconditionally meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- who pledges to wipe Israel off the map, denies the Holocaust, sponsors terrorists, arms America's enemies in Iraq and pursues nuclear weapons. What would Sen. Obama talk about with such a man? It would be a wonderful thing if we lived in a world where we don't have enemies. But that is not the world we live in, and until Sen. Obama understands that, the American people have every reason to doubt whether he has the strength, judgment and determination to keep us safe."

Obama said during The Democratic Debate in Los Angeles that he planned on meeting within his first year, with our enemies, without pre-conditions. Hillary Clinton clled his position naive and dangerous.

McCain campaign spokesman Bounds said McCain has long said he would impose preconditions before meeting with Hamas. "John McCain has always believed that serious engagement would require mandatory conditions and Hamas must change itself fundamentally, renounce violence, abandon its goal of eradicating Israel and accept a two-state solution," Bounds said in a statement.