Appeasement and bribery never work when dealing with tyrannical forces.

Mona Charen has a great column on how well appeasement and bribery worked with North Korea, and how the left didn't (and still doesn't) get it. Column here, excerpt follows:

Do you remember North Korea? It's the country Sen. John Kerry and the Democrats kept asserting was more of a threat than Saddam's Iraq during the campaign of 2004. Funny, they haven't mentioned it since. They've reverted to the customary Democratic methods of dealing with threats in non-election years: appeasement, bribery, denial and blame America -- not necessarily in that order.

The Clinton administration certainly attempted the appeasement and bribery technique. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright traveled to Pyongyang to flatter the regime. In 1994, we signed the "Agreed Framework" -- a deal that required North Korea to cease work on its graphite-moderated nuclear power plants (which can produce weapons-grade plutonium) and promise to sin no more. In exchange, we agreed to supply North Korea with two light water nuclear reactors (the $4 billion cost was shouldered mostly by Japan and South Korea).

Additionally, the United States agreed to supply North Korea with 500,000 tons of heavy fuel oil annually gratis, to compensate for the loss of energy from the nuclear reactors it was, in theory, shutting down. The U.S. further provided formal assurances that we had no plans to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against North Korea.
There you have the perfect liberal approach. The thinking behind it is clear as a bell. North Korea is not aggressive; it is frightened, thus the assurances about our peaceful intentions. North Korea is not building nuclear power plants in order to become a nuclear bully boy, but only for electricity for its people. We'll cheerfully provide that.

Ya gotta long for the good ol' days of Bill Clinton, huh? Sure, he ignored the issue of terrorism for eight years, but it's fairly difficult to pay attention when your getting your putter polished by an intern your daughter's age...so cut the man some slack! Sure, he sold nuclear technology to the NorKoms and ChiComs (the latter in exchange for campaign contributions). Sure, both of those things happened to compromise our national security interests under Bill Clinton's watch...but hey, were our 401k accounts in great shape or what?! Exactly what Clinton policies or proposals contributed to the boom of the 1990's is anyone's guess, but don't let a little thing like that get in the way of perpetuating ignorant assertions that the man singlehandedly improved the economy! But I digress...continuing:

It failed miserably. A few years after signing this accord, the North Koreans fired a missile over Japan. Secretary of State Albright raced to a microphone to announce that "We agree, and we have let the North Koreans know, in no uncertain terms, that the August 31 launch was a dangerous development." But, she added stubbornly, "Our engagement with North Korea through the Agreed Framework remains central to our ability to press for restraint on missiles and for answers to our questions about suspicious underground construction activities."

So because we were bribing them not to cheat, we'd earned the right to complain when they did? Of course the North Koreans cheated. At first they hotly denied they had cheated, but later, they proudly proclaimed the fact. Today, they claim and few doubt that they possess at least some nuclear weapons. North Korea has shared its technology in the past with Iran and Libya, and since the nation is literally starving (communist economies always produce bumper crops of poverty), and since Kim Jong Il is a vain and sinister leader, we must assume that North Korea might sell nuclear weapons to the highest bidder.

This is the table that has been set for us. While many liberals seem to think that the greatest threats we face arise from the Patriot Act or from "Bush's lies," the truth is that bitter and evil men still seek the power to destroy as many of us as they can possibly hit.

As many people as they can hit. Not white people. Not black people. Not conservatives or Republicans or libertarians. But as many people as they can hit. That means they want liberals dead, too. They want us ALL dead. You folks do understand that, right?

Appeasement worked with Hitler. Uh...no, wait, it didn't. He still marched through Europe and attacked Britain, who had up to then appeased Hitler greatly.

Well, it worked with the USSR. Uh...no, wait, it didn't. They built up a huge nuclear arsenal to use against us until they spent themselves into bankruptcy.

OK, appeasement worked with al Qaeda in Spain. Uh...no, wait, it didn't. al Qaeda tried to attack Spain again after the gazpacho-eating surrender monkeys tucked tail at the ballot box to vote in a socialist appeaser. "Initially, it appeared that terrorists targeted Spain because of the government's support for the U.S.-led war in Iraq. But weeks after outraged Spaniards voted out their pro-U.S. government and the new leaders announced the withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq, another bomb was found on the tracks of a high-speed train line." What?? You mean al Qaeda lied? No way!

Appeasement and bribery of evil makes the insane assumption that your good will is going to be matched by an evil entity's good will. Does that sound the least bit rational to you?