Posted by
Lucky Rock (Jason Anderson) on Saturday, September 22, 2007 9:45:53 PM
Today I rejoined my quest to conquer Churchill's
The Second World War,
for which he won the Nobel prize for literature and which spans six
arduous volumes. As I read, I'm absolutely blown away by the parallels
between the present war against Islamofascism and rogue nation-states
and Churchill's fight against Fascist and Nazi aggression. And one
simple question comes to mind: where have all the Churchills gone?
W
fancies himself a Churchill protege. But unfortunately for Americans
and the free world, President Bush values loyalty over competence and
seemingly blinds himself to inconvenient truths. On the contrary,
Churchill bluntly assessed British, French, and German armaments and he
dealt solely with the facts at hand. No, Churchill didn't get it right
every time, but unlike Bush's keeping of incompetent Rummy for three
years, Churchill sought the best real-world solutions to threats
at-hand based on centuries-old principles of British opposition to the
most powerful aggressor.
To Bush's credit, he recognizes the
threat of Islamofascism in the wake of 9/11 and of rogue nuke-seeking
states and Bush has attempted to swiftly squash those menaces.
Conversely, many fellow Republicans such as Chuck Hagel and most
Democrats refuse to believe "the worst" about and move decisively
against Islamic extremists and rogue nations, much as Baldwin,
Chamberlain, the great majority of the British parliament, and French
leaders in Churchill's day refused to act resolutely to confront
Italian and German aggression.
About this sort of inaction
Churchill writes, "Virtuous motives, trammelled by inertia and
timidity, are no match for armed and resolute wickedness. A sincere
love of peace is no excuse for muddling hundreds of millions of humble
folks into total war. The cheers of weak, well-meaning assemblies soon
cease to echo, and their votes soon cease to count. Doom marches on."
Those
opposed to the Iraq war respond with Howard Dean, "Wrong war, wrong
place, wrong time." Meanwhile those against taking a tough line with
North Korea, Iran, Syria and others ask us to sit down with
self-serving despots and negotiate in good faith. Was this not the
response of British and French politicians in the face of Mussolini's
march into Abyssinia and Hitler's retrenchment of the Rheinland? What
then will result from the failure of our leaders, with Presidents GHW
Bush and Bill Clinton before them, to decisively act against Islamic
extremists and other aggressors today?
As I scan the current
crop of Presidential candidates and the Congress, the question remains:
where have all the Churchills gone?