Americans must worry that Munich 2.0 looms.
2026 cannot become as infamous as 1938.
President Donald Trump’s dispatch of negotiators to Islamabad for the resumption of negotiations with the rump regime atop the Islamic Republic of Iran is a moment of peril for the world, the region, the people of Iran, Israel, the United States and of course for President Donald Trump.
There is no doubt that all of the above parties — except the Iranian regime and its proxies — are in much improved positions than they were on February 27th — the eve of the battle with the Islamic Republic. The world is safer that the military and defense industrial might of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp is smashed and its proxy force of terrorists — Hezbollah in Lebanon — has been humbled again by the Israeli Defense Forces. The leaders of the civilized world, whether they say it out loud or not, are relieved.
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But so too was the world relieved on November 12, 1918, the day after the Allies’ armistice with the Kaiser’s Germany.
World War I was over with the signing of that armistice. World War II became inevitable that very same day because in the aftermath of the “the war to end all wars,” President Woodrow Wilson “lost” the peace.
Arguably the worst president of the last century, Wilson’s ego and academic approach to the world and its realities condemned the world to an encore war, one that would turn out to be worse by far than the one just concluded that long ago 11/11. President Wilson’s mantle was picked up by President Barack Obama. President Trump must reject the temptation of that cloak which covers disaster with the appearance of an agreement.
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The danger is that America (meaning of course President Trump) accepts half or even three-quarters of a loaf of a “deal,” instead of demanding the capitulation of the rump regime in Iran.
That rump is run by “hardliners” — just like the hardliners who murdered tens of thousands of its own people in January and has imprisoned thousands more since while executing hundreds. Hardliners then and now are counting on the “soft” West to concede everything that matters in order to get gas prices down and the oil flowing to fully power the world’s economy. These fanatics believe they can out-negotiate President Trump. Doubtful, but possible.
President Trump is solely responsible for this negotiation. There is no Lloyd George, Clemenceau, or any of the many other parties who were present at the Paris Peace Talks at today’s table. The entire responsibility for whatever blame follows — this month, this year, this decade, or even this century — rests with President Trump, just as the credit, if deserved, will as well.
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The negotiations that ended in the disastrous “Peace of Versailles,” were a failure and there was no real peace at all. Long before Hitler arrived on the scene, Germany had begun to plan to rearm. The Islamic Republic cannot emerge from the ruins resolved not on reform but revenge.
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President Trump can agree to everything that doesn’t matter, but he cannot fold on the major points. The whole world knows what a victory looks like. President Trump should settle for nothing less than Iran’s abandonment of enrichment forever, the return of the “nuclear dust” to American control, an end to ballistic missile production and to support for terrorists, Iran’s “lunatics” as Secretary Rubio bluntly described them this week. The people of Iran must have their basic human rights restored.
President Trump’s place in history depends upon his resolve right now as does — and far more importantly — freedom for the Iranian people and stability for the entire region. It is not too much to say that the next many decades for the whole world depend upon the president’s resolve this week and next.
We cannot have another Munich. A few days ago President Trump stated the truth: The United Kingdom cannot afford another Neville Chamberlain. The United States can’t afford its first Chamberlain, or another President Obama.
Hugh Hewitt is a Fox News contributor and host of “The Hugh Hewitt Show” heard weekday afternoons from 3 PM to 6 PM ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh drives Americans home on the East Coast and to lunch on the West Coast on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel’s news roundtable, hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcasting. This column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.
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