> If we take away this last resort from governments, they would [...] Appeasement doesn't work. Maybe it's easier to remember that if you're British and so you

> If we take away this last resort from governments, they would [...] Appeasement doesn't work. Maybe it's easier to remember that if you're British and so you had to watch Chamberlain's "Peace for our time" news reel in history class. The British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, negotiated a deal with rising star German Chancellor Adolf Hitler, you've heard of him. Hitler agreed that Germany wouldn't start a massive European war in exchange for the British turning a blind eye to smaller wars he'd already started. You may never have heard of Chamberlain, because it turns out that piece of paper with Hitler's signature on it was worth precisely what you'd expect, and we needed an actual War Prime Minister soon enough. Now, the argument for appeasement is that sure, it doesn't actually work but it buys time. This is wrong because your opponents have the same extra time and they know precisely what they're doing whereas you're expending resources pretending (even if you correctly believe the appeasement won't work) that appeasement works.