The appeasement of Nazi Germany in the 1930s spectacularly failed in its attempt to prevent the outbreak of the Second World War. In 1938, after British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain agreed to the fatal compromise on Czechoslovakia’s German-speaking Sudetenland at Munich, Winston Churchill said: “You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war.” War broke out a year later after Germany invaded Poland. The rest is history, and its consequences were devastating.

Three-quarters of a century down the line, yet another appeasement is now in play. This time, Iran is the aggressor and the US the appeaser.

The venue is Vienna and the end goal less than ideal: To delay the possibility of Iran acquiring a weapon of mass destruction, rather than permanently cap its ability to do so. President Barack Obama tried before, fueling Iran’s aggression across the region. His Democratic successor, Joe Biden, is now trying again, overlooking the consequences of this aggression.