Late Idaho Senator figures in 2008 presidential furor
In a speech Thursday to the Israeli Knesset, Bush mentioned the president of Iran, and said:"Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along."
Bush then recalled a comment attributed to Borah in 1939 following Germany's invasion of Poland.
"As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939," Bush told Israeli lawmakers,"an American senator declared: 'Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."
Obama has said he would pursue talks with Iran without insisting on"preconditions" that could prompt Iranian leaders to spurn the request.
The comments have touched off back-and-forth salvos from the various camps, with Obama lashing out at President Bush and at Republican presidential rival John McCain for"dishonest, divisive" attacks in intimating the Democratic presidential hopeful would be soft on terrorists.
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Did Borah say it?