We all disapprove of appeasement, right? The term evokes Munich, where British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain made concessions to Adolf Hitler in the hope that would sate, rather than whet, the Fuhrer's appetite for conquest.

"You were given the choice between war and dishonor," Winston Churchill famously chastised Chamberlain afterwards. "You chose dishonor and you will have war."

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I understand why Joe Biden wants to rejoin the World Health Organization and the United Nations Human Rights Council. The new president is a multilateralist, which his predecessor certainly was not, and he's eager to draw that contrast quickly and clearly.

What I don't understand: Why he wouldn't ask these two UN agencies for at least a few reforms in exchange for America's return? The need for such reforms can hardly be in doubt.

Start with the WHO. Would anyone give it a passing grade for its response to the global pandemic? Does anyone not comprehend that its leaders take theirs marching orders from China's rulers?

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"Killing for them is a habit," Rasha al-Ameer told reporters last week.

By "them" she meant Hezbollah, a designated terrorist organization that is Lebanon's most powerful political party, with a militia the Lebanese Armed Forces dares not challenge. Hezbollah operates internationally and is known to partner with Latin American drug cartels. One more pertinent fact you should know: Hezbollah's primary allegiance is to the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The killing in question on this occasion was that of Miss al-Ameer's brother, Lokman Slim, a prominent Lebanese Shia filmmaker, publisher, and activist who had the temerity to criticize Hezbollah for the incalculable harm it has done to his long-suffering country.

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International Holocaust Remembrance Day is meant to serve two purposes: to memorialize the victims of the Nazi genocide of the 1940s, and help prevent future genocides.

Last week, on Jan. 27, the day designated by the U.N. General Assembly for this annual commemoration, both purposes were insufficiently served.

I'll give credit where it's due. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made an appropriate statement: "Today we honor the memory of the six million Jews and millions of others who were systematically murdered in the Holocaust by the Nazis and their collaborators."

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With a little imagination, the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 might have been prevented. Islamist suicide terrorists had used cars, trucks, and boats to deliver bombs. Why not jet planes? The proper authorities could have taken precautions. But they didn't.

With a little imagination, the pandemic that originated in China in 2019 might not have been so devastating. The Spanish flu killed millions in 1918. Wasn't a similar outbreak likely within a century or so – either due to natural causes, carelessness, or mischief? The proper authorities could have stocked adequate supplies of personal protective equipment, and formulated plans to mitigate the economic damage that such a health crisis would ignite. But they didn't.

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