Same mindset -- just a different scale (or why -- as much as I admire her -- I must oppose Condi Rice for veep!)

Over the weekend, on Rachel Lucas's blog, there was a fairly heated comment thread regarding self-defense and reasons for concealed carry vs pacifism.* Today, at The Corner -- so far here, here, and here -- there's a discussion of Israel, Palestine and Hamas (prompted by Jimmah Cahtah's asstastically self-aggrandizing visit) that just begs the drawing of a parallel, don't it?

In both cases, you have people on the pacifist/appeaser side assuming one thing that renders all the rest of their arguments specious -- that the aggressor is rational!

Their argument is, "If you just give the mugger your wallet, or the terrorist your land, he will go away and leave you in peace." Yet this not only begs the question of rationality on the part of someone who has just behaved irrationally, it also defies basic principles of behavior science -- i.e. whatever is rewarded will be repeated!

Excuse me, but DUH? Have none of these people ever dealt with a child, or even a puppy?

Muggers who get wallets from unresisting victims will go out and mug again; and terrorists who are rewarded with land will continue to terrorize until they get all the land -- especially if that goal happens, as in the case of Hamas, to be in their flaming charter!

What kind of drugs do you have to be on to believe that appeasement will ever work?

Yet some people, somehow, claim to see 'progress.'

Secretary Rice has said:

"Well, you can look at any opinion poll in the Palestinian territories and 70 percent of the people will say they're perfectly ready to live side by side with Israel because they just want to live in peace"

Now, even if were 70% (instead of a more realistic 50 - 60% H/T Andy McCarthy) can you really believe that 70% represents a tipping point? Would you happily live in a neighborhood, or even walk into a room, where 30% of the people present had a history of violence and wanted you dead???

Which brings me to the sad hope that Condi never runs for either President or Vice President -- alas!

*Of course, now I've exposed my penchant for digression in comment threads -- heh! My comments were relevant to the discussion at the beginning of the section, re Va Tech, concealed carry laws, and 0n-campus concealed carry. Just got in there kinda late because the other posters started a rapid-fire exchange while I was pecking away here. That hot-and-heavy traffic actually caused a huge lag in posting -- hence my re-post, DOH! I'm such a noob :).