Said the Zebra to the Lions

Pebble to Michael Totten via Hugh Hewitt. Mary Madigan gives a great analogy for appeasement from the comic strip Pearls from Swine.

Discussions about Middle East politics remind me of a bit from a comic, Pearls Before Swine. One of the characters is a Zebra, who can't understand why the lions keep eating his fellow Zebras. So, he writes a letter to the lions filled with philosophical questions about peace, understanding and the nature of being, asking why can't they all get along, why can't they be friends..

The answer comes back from the lions "we eat Zebras becuz you taste gud."

One of the main reasons why we've been so ineffective against the mob politics in Syria, Iran, Hezbollahland, Egypt, Saudi Arabia etc. is the way we allow ourselves to be distracted by their propaganda and by our own desire for peace. We don't pay enough attention to their goals and their actions.

...

These organizations fight with us for the same mundane reasons all aggressors fight - they don't want a slice of the pie, they want the whole thing. It's our job not to be fooled by them - or by ourselves.