I am officially declaring that all future invokations of the reputation frame (and its cousin, the Green Lantern Theory of Geopolitics, which focuses on the importance of ‘will’) by neoconservatives be renamed “henny-penny arguments”, since they invoke the same feeling of hysterical irrationality that Rumsfeld originally tried to convey. In a recent speech, Secretary Rumsfeld stated…

…the world faces “a new type of fascism” and likened critics of the Bush administration’s war strategy to those who tried to appease the Nazis in the 1930s.

He quoted Winston Churchill as observing that trying to accommodate Hitler was “a bit like feeding a crocodile, hoping it would eat you last.”

“I recount this history because once again we face similar challenges in efforts to confront the rising threat of a new type of fascism,” he said.

“Can we truly afford to believe that somehow, some way, vicious extremists can be appeased?” he asked.

“Can we truly afford to return to the destructive view that America _ not the enemy _ is the real source of the world’s troubles?”

Nothing like tearing down a strawman to defend your policies. Like many critics, my problem with the administration’s policies is not that they don’t ‘blame America first’ or ‘give the terrorists what they want’, it’s that they are ill-conceived, poorly executed, and self-defeating in many cases.

[for those who do not get the History Channel reference, see here]

Update: Bruce Jentleson gets into the act over at American Abroad. Rob as well.

Filed as: Rumsfeld, Appeasement