WWIII? Silence & Forgetting

The title of this article could have been thought out by not so ignorant Czechoslovak Milan Kundera. I was born 13 lucky unlucky years after WWII, but as a child listening to adult conversations I remember how Munich caused waves of memory and grief wash together at our dinner table.
In any discussion on the probable conflict in Iraq, people in favor of such a war frequently mention Neville Chamberlain at Munich. The lesson of Chamberlain's infamous meeting with Hitler is obvious: Appeasement does not work with madmen or with dictators. Rather than bringing peace, it only promotes a longer and more horrible war.
Unlike Vaclav Havel, James Cumes, Carmen Lawrence, most souls have forgotten that democracy is a dangerous business. Built into the Constitution is the notion that a free people should thwart its leaders if necessary. This is our duty, the price of our freedom. Leaders hate to be thwarted; it is in the nature of power to consolidate itself.
It is clear that in the US the Democrats, the so-called opposition party, are unwilling to accept the dangers of democracy. It is clear that the Congress of the United States, conceived as a brake on the dangers of an imperial presidency, will continue to be a rubber stamp for the Bush imperium. It is clear that the Supreme Court will be willing to suspend any civil liberty that thwarts the plans of the supreme leader of what is often referred to as 'the greatest nation on earth.'
· Has Saddam Got Same Power As Adolf? [San Francisco Chronicle]