No one interested in political affairs is likely to forget the nature and the consequences of the appeasement policy in 1938 of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, a policy of making political concession to Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany in order to avoid conflict. Today, it is the German leader, Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose policy on a current issue resembles a policy of appeasement as well as a qualification of the principle of the right of free speech. Merkel cannot claim, as Chamberlain did, that the problem was the Czechs, “a faraway people about whom we know so little.” She is dealing with Turkey and its President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about whom we know a great deal. Chamberlain sought, foolishly or otherwise, friendship with Hitler. Merkel has perhaps not sought friendship with Erdogan, but she has acted toward him in a manner more subservient than required in polite diplomacy. Merkel might heed her political mentor, former German Chancellor Helmut...(Read Full Article)