Why we fight... today
Seventy years ago now, there was a man in England whom nobody listened to. He had been Lord of the Admirality during World War I, and after the war was over, he was shunned by his fellow politicians. His situation was similar to that of Julius Caesar, when he came into the Senate and Antony said to Caesar, "Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look". To which Caesar basically replied "there's nothing I can do about that..." Antony replied to him "Such men as he never be at heart's ease, whilst they behold a greater than themselves".
And so, every time Parliament would meet, their customary first vote would normally be who would be prime minister. But instead, while this man was in Parliament, their first vote would be "Winston Churchill shall not hold any position of power", and then they would go about their business, because they knew that if he held a position of power, he would climb his way right to the top, and being the little worms they are, just like Cassius, they "never be at heart's ease, whilst they behold a greater than themselves". And so all during the 1930's, Winston Churchill offered warning after warning about Hitler's rise to power and military buildup. His fellow politicians would laugh at and scorn him. He pointed out Germany's past aggression, their past disregard for treaties, and their breaking of current treaties like the Treaty of Versailles.
And they still laughed at him. Churchill then proposed that England at least begin to build up a military, so that they would be on closer to equal footing should war come. They labeled him a warmonger, among other insults. And eventually Winston realized that they would not listen.
In 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria, and nobody did anything except "we condemn this and say it is wrong". And this sent a message to the rest of the globe saying "Hey, these guys won't stand up against us if we're careful about it..." Italy did the same thing in Ethiopia, and eventually Hitler went way beyond the Treaty of Versailles and remilitarized the Rhineland, and Churchill said "um, hello guys, do something", so they yelled at Hitler and said "don't do that". Then he went into Austria, again in disregard of the Treaty of Versailles, and the European and American leadership did nothing. He then went for the Sudetenland, and they claimed "that's it, if he goes after the rest of Czechoslovakia, that means war". Hitler thought to himself "these guys are a bunch of ninnies" and so he invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia, and they STILL did nothing but yell at Hitler. And so Hitler called the leaders of Europe together to the Munich Conference, where he declared "I will not take any more countries, this one is it" (poor Czechoslovakia is down the tubes, but hey...)
And so Neville Chamberlain comes back with the Fuhrer's signature in his hands, claiming "peace in our time, peace in our time", everyone cheered, except one man, Winston Churchill. A reporter came and asked him, "What do you think of what the Prime Minister has done in securing peace in our time?" To which Winston Churchill replied "The Prime Minister faced a very difficult question, whether to choose war, or shame. And he has chosen both".
And as we know, on September 1, 1939, Hitler again broke his word, and plunged the world into the bloodiest war of all time, wherein FIFTY-FIVE MILLION people died. And if we asked Winston Churchill what he called this war, he would have replied "This war will go down in history as the unnecessary war". Because Sir Winston Churchill knew how to stop the war before it even started, but nobody had the backbone to do it.
Had Europe listened to Churchill, even making him Prime Minister of England, perhaps they would have immediately mobilized the forces of France and England to oppose the Fuhrer's military buildup, sparking a war that cost 10,000 lives, utterly destroyed Germany's ability to produce military equipment or train forces, and removed the Fuhrer from power. Had they done that, Sir Winston Churchill would have gone down in history as a man who started a needless war, and cost the lives of 10,000 people in the process.
HOWEVER, in the process of doing that, Sir Winston Churchill would have prevented World War II from ever happening, my grandmother would probably have her brother still alive to this day, and FIFTY-FIVE MILLION other people would have lived to old age. But, instead, in the name of "peace" and not involving ourselves in an "unnecessary war", we let the problem fester until our enemies became so emboldened that they felt they could control entire regions of the world, and eventually the whole globe, and we witnessed the bloodiest war in the history of mankind, simply because nobody had the spine to stand up and get rid of the problem when it was still a little problem.
Back in the early 1930's when Churchill was advocating military buildup, nobody would have pegged Hitler as a threat to the entire globe, or even the region. And so, I'll let you draw your own parallels to the current war in Iraq. That is what our soldiers gave their lives for, so that the new generation, being born today, does not have to fight this war down the road at the cost of millions of lives, when some other goose-stepping nutjob thinks we won't stand up to him.
And so, every time Parliament would meet, their customary first vote would normally be who would be prime minister. But instead, while this man was in Parliament, their first vote would be "Winston Churchill shall not hold any position of power", and then they would go about their business, because they knew that if he held a position of power, he would climb his way right to the top, and being the little worms they are, just like Cassius, they "never be at heart's ease, whilst they behold a greater than themselves". And so all during the 1930's, Winston Churchill offered warning after warning about Hitler's rise to power and military buildup. His fellow politicians would laugh at and scorn him. He pointed out Germany's past aggression, their past disregard for treaties, and their breaking of current treaties like the Treaty of Versailles.
And they still laughed at him. Churchill then proposed that England at least begin to build up a military, so that they would be on closer to equal footing should war come. They labeled him a warmonger, among other insults. And eventually Winston realized that they would not listen.
In 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria, and nobody did anything except "we condemn this and say it is wrong". And this sent a message to the rest of the globe saying "Hey, these guys won't stand up against us if we're careful about it..." Italy did the same thing in Ethiopia, and eventually Hitler went way beyond the Treaty of Versailles and remilitarized the Rhineland, and Churchill said "um, hello guys, do something", so they yelled at Hitler and said "don't do that". Then he went into Austria, again in disregard of the Treaty of Versailles, and the European and American leadership did nothing. He then went for the Sudetenland, and they claimed "that's it, if he goes after the rest of Czechoslovakia, that means war". Hitler thought to himself "these guys are a bunch of ninnies" and so he invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia, and they STILL did nothing but yell at Hitler. And so Hitler called the leaders of Europe together to the Munich Conference, where he declared "I will not take any more countries, this one is it" (poor Czechoslovakia is down the tubes, but hey...)
And so Neville Chamberlain comes back with the Fuhrer's signature in his hands, claiming "peace in our time, peace in our time", everyone cheered, except one man, Winston Churchill. A reporter came and asked him, "What do you think of what the Prime Minister has done in securing peace in our time?" To which Winston Churchill replied "The Prime Minister faced a very difficult question, whether to choose war, or shame. And he has chosen both".
And as we know, on September 1, 1939, Hitler again broke his word, and plunged the world into the bloodiest war of all time, wherein FIFTY-FIVE MILLION people died. And if we asked Winston Churchill what he called this war, he would have replied "This war will go down in history as the unnecessary war". Because Sir Winston Churchill knew how to stop the war before it even started, but nobody had the backbone to do it.
Had Europe listened to Churchill, even making him Prime Minister of England, perhaps they would have immediately mobilized the forces of France and England to oppose the Fuhrer's military buildup, sparking a war that cost 10,000 lives, utterly destroyed Germany's ability to produce military equipment or train forces, and removed the Fuhrer from power. Had they done that, Sir Winston Churchill would have gone down in history as a man who started a needless war, and cost the lives of 10,000 people in the process.
HOWEVER, in the process of doing that, Sir Winston Churchill would have prevented World War II from ever happening, my grandmother would probably have her brother still alive to this day, and FIFTY-FIVE MILLION other people would have lived to old age. But, instead, in the name of "peace" and not involving ourselves in an "unnecessary war", we let the problem fester until our enemies became so emboldened that they felt they could control entire regions of the world, and eventually the whole globe, and we witnessed the bloodiest war in the history of mankind, simply because nobody had the spine to stand up and get rid of the problem when it was still a little problem.
Back in the early 1930's when Churchill was advocating military buildup, nobody would have pegged Hitler as a threat to the entire globe, or even the region. And so, I'll let you draw your own parallels to the current war in Iraq. That is what our soldiers gave their lives for, so that the new generation, being born today, does not have to fight this war down the road at the cost of millions of lives, when some other goose-stepping nutjob thinks we won't stand up to him.
posted by Matt | 6:42 PM
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