How do you negotiate with people who are willing to enter into a pact with no intention of holding to it?

Leon de Winter writes in The Weekly Standard about the historic October 2003 agreement between Tehran and the European Union regarding the development of nuclear weapons technology. It’s too bad that the entire exercise “was fiction and deception” on the part of the Iranian government.

The primary cause of Europe’s inability to do anything about Iran’s quest to be a nuclear power is a complete misunderstanding of what really happened on the continent in the 20th century. That is, what wars are, and why wars are fought. Says de Winter:

Perfectly expressing this concept of war were the huge demonstrations in Europe against the war in Iraq. In these rituals, the term “war” was taken out of its historical, political, and cultural context, and no justification for fighting was deemed acceptable. The high priest of this antihistorical creed is Michael Moore, who, 59 years after the end of the Second World War, in a discussion with TV talk show host Bill O’Reilly, would not state categorically that only a devastating war could have saved Europe from something far worse, namely Nazism. By these lights, war is bad whatever the historical or political circumstances.

What, Adolf Hitler was simply misunderstood? The Holocaust wasn’t that bad? (Or, didn’t even happen?) The French wanted the Nazis ruling their country?

Please read the whole artlcle; I’m ashamed to admit that our favorite misanthropist only plays a bit part… an oh-so-important bit part, but a bit part nonetheless.

UPDATE: On a semi-related note, Lorie Byrd ties John McCain’s “graver threat” to the Chechen school massacre. As you read the Sunday Mirror article she links to, please ask yourself: What Would Michael Moore Do?

I don’t think I want to know.