Bruce Thornton Advocates Hard Line on Islamic Extremists March 25, 2011

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Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2011/02/09/Uncommon_Knowledge_Bruce_Thornton

Bruce Thornton, author of The Wages of Appeasement, argues that hostile Islamic fundamentalist groups cannot be reasoned with by Western diplomats. "Realize that there's not going to be any resolution outside of force," says Thornton, who advises President Obama to continue military action against organizations like the Taliban.

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Bruce Thornton is a professor of classics and humanities at California State University, Fresno, and a national fellow at the Hoover Institution. His latest book is The Wages of Appeasement: Ancient Athens, Munich and Obama's America.

According to Bruce Thornton, "Appeasement is an eternal temptation for all people." Why? And what has appeasement got to do with Obama's America? Drawing on the lessons of the Greek city-states in their confrontations with Phillip II of Macedon and England in the 1920s and 1930s as it faced the threat of Hitler's Germany, Thornton points out the inherent weakness of democracies as they deal with enemies. He draws a straight line of appeasement that began in Saigon in 1975 and then proceeded through Tehran in 1979 to New York in 2001. Finally he offers his thoughts on how we can break free of this dangerous trajectory. - The Hoover Institution

Bruce S. Thornton is a classicist at California State University, Fresno. He is a frequent guest on talk radio shows across the United States and appeared regularly on ABC's Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher. Thornton is a regular contributor to the popular, conservative website www.CaliforniaRepublic.org and has written several books.

Peter M. Robinson is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, where he writes about business and politics, edits the Hoover Institution's quarterly journal, the Hoover Digest, and hosts Hoover's television program, Uncommon Knowledge.