What kind of a People do they think we are? - Winston Churchill

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IMMORTAL WORDS"OUR QUALITIES AND DEEDS MUST BURN AND GLOW 77Churchill's Wisdom Calls to Us Across the YearsRICHARD M. LANGWORTH/ sit in one of the divesOn Fifty-second StreetUncertain and afraidAs the clever hopes expireOf a low dishonest decade;Waves of anger and fearCirculate over the brightAnd darkened lands of the earth,Obsessing our private lives;The unmentionable odour of deathOffends the September night—W. H. Auden, September I, 1939Sent to us by Professor Paul A. RaheNineteen forty, he told us, was "atime when it was equally good tolive or die." Here is another. For fivedays after September 11th we wereasked for quotes: What did Churchillsay in similar circumstances? Whendid he say it? What effect did it haveon people? Is it appropriate now? Ofcourse it is appropriate now.Churchill said at Munich, "I willbegin by saying die most unpopularthing." Here it is: We are not—quite—united. The academic left is busily atwork assuring students that Americabrought this on herself. At the Universityof North Carolina ProfessorWilliam Blum demanded the President"apologize to all the widows and orphanscreated by chauvinism, racismand sexism," and cut the defense budgetby 90%. At the University of NewMexico a Professor Richard Bertholdtold his students, "Anybody who canblow up the Pentagon has my vote." InWashington, a scraggle of innocentsfree to speak through the sacrifice ofothers gathered to demonstrate against"war and racism." The crackpot rightcontributed the Rev. Jerry Falwell, whosaid this was God's act against "pagans,abortionists, feminists, gays, lesbians,the ACLU and People for the AmericanWay."Ian Langworth at the World Trade Center, 1986** / I 'he worst difficulties from whichJ. we suffer do not come from without.They come from within. They donot come from the cottages of the wageearners.They come from a peculiar typeof brainy people always found in ourcountry, who, if they add something toits culture, take much from its strength. \Our difficulties come from the mood ofunwarrantable self-abasement intowhich we have been cast by a powerfulsection of our own intellectuals. They jcome from the acceptance of defeatistdoctrines by a large proportion of ourpoliticians....Nothing can save England jif she will not save herself. If we lose faithin ourselves, in our capacity to guide andgovern, if we lose our will to live, thenindeed our story is told."'Our "Quotation of the Season"on page 5 can only be from October1938. What Churchill said in the aftermathof Munich stands starklyagainst the searing pictures of NewYork and Washington. We have sus- |tained "a total and unmitigated defeat."There has been "gross neglectand deficiency in our defences." Wewere weighed in the balance andfound wanting.It is important however to rememberthat even after Munich, thisrenowned man of war was at heart apeacemaker, who deplored the carelessneglect that had brought war on:H~V\TThen the situation was man-Vr ageable it was neglected, andnow that it is thoroughly out of hand weapply too late the remedies which thenmight have effected a cure. There isnothing new in the story. It is as old asthe sibylline books. It falls into thatlong, dismal catalogue ofthefruitlessnessof experience and the confirmed unteachabilityof mankind. Want of foresight,unwillingness to act when actionwould be simple and effective, lack ofclear thinking, confusion of counseluntil the emergency comes, until selfpreservationstrikes its jarring gong—these are the features which constitutethe endless repetition of history. " 2We remember equally Churchill'spowerful sense of fair play, which is,after all, what animated Americas effortsin the Middle East—howeverimperfect. It was inconsistent to demandthat some UN resolutions beenforced but not others; naive to urgeany nation to relinquish occupied territorywithout an absolute guaranteeof unimpeachable security; foolish tobomb the wrong places from afar inattempts at risk-free retribution. Itwas not inconsistent to support theone democracy in sea of autocracy; tobroker a settlement offering Palestinians95% of what they wanted; tospend lives and treasure saving peoplein Kuwait, Kosovo, Somalia andBosnia—all of them Muslims, ironically.Churchill said, "We have to assumethe burden of the most thanklesstasks, and in undertaking them to bescoffed at, criticised, and opposed fromFINEST HOUR 112/8
IMMORTAL WORDSnew barbarians. Unlike Christianityand Judaism, Islam has never experiencedreform. Thirteen centuries afterChristianity's founding, its fanaticswere burning infidels in the name ofGod. Thirteen centuries after Islam'sfounding is now. Its fanatics will neverseparate church and state. Whereverthey rule, women are chattel and nonbelieversare persecuted: AfricanChristians, Afghan Hindus, IndonesianBuddhists, Jews everywhere. Whyare we hated? Because here, womenare empowered. Here, Christians, Jewsand Muslims live peacefully together."Tell the truth to the British people!"Churchill once thundered in frustration.There is the truth.Churchill habitually appeared after heavy raids. In Bristol, April 1941, are (foreground left to right): bodyguardWalter H. Thompson, Clementine Churchill, American Ambassador Gilbert Winant, WSC.every quarter." 3 Well, they have nowexported their jihad, their seventh centurymentality, their unending strifeand hatreds to our country. And thatmakes it personal.7 i n succeeding generationsa lot of talk about thepacific virtues we displayed; how we exhaustedevery expedient; how we flaunteda magnificent patience; how we never lostour heads or were carried away by fear orexcitement; how we turned the secondcheek to the smiter seven times or more.Some historians will urge that admirationshould be given to a Government ofhonourable high-minded men who boreprovocation with exemplary forbearanceand piled up to their credit all the Christianvirtues, especially those which commandelectioneering popularity...."I hope it will also be written howhard all this was upon the ordinarycommon folk who fill the casualty lists.Under-represented in Government andParliamentary institutions, they confidetheir safety to the Ministers and thePrime Minister of the day. They havejust cause of complaint if their guides orrulers so mismanage their affairs that inthe end they are thrust into the worst ofwars with the worst of chances." 4So we are at war—never mindwhat slick "operation" we call it: witharmed forces 40% of their size adecade ago, and intelligence demonstrablyin need of overhaul. Will weget it right this time, or resume thefollies that may someday cost us ourlives? Our inertia in defending ourliberty dogs our history. How often,Churchill wondered, must we learnthe old truths anew, to slide slowlydown from invincibility, only to bereminded by sudden calamity that wehave neglected the primary mission ofgovernment: to provide for the commondefense?^O till, if you will not fight for thebright when you can easily winwithout bloodshed; if you will not fightwhen your victory will be sure and nottoo costly; you may come to the momentwhen you will have to fight with all theodds against you and only a precariouschance of survival. There may even be aworse case. You may have to fight whenthere is no hope of victory, because it isbetter to perish than live as slaves." 5Moral relativists once told usNazis just wanted a place in the sun;today they tell us the same about thes^aM have no truce or parleywith you, or the grisly gangwho work your wicked will. You do yourworst—and we will do our best.... Wedo not expect to hit without being hitback, and we intend with every weekthat passes to hit harder. Prepare yourselvesthen, my friends and comrades, forthis renewal of your exertions. We shallnever turn from our purpose, howeversombre the road, however grievous thecost, because we know that out of thistime of trial and tribulation will beborn a new freedom and glory for allmankind." 6Churchill warned that the task athand would not be easy. Not for himthe 1914 formulation, "it will all beover by Christmas." On the contrary,he said (and President Bush has almostsaid): "We must prepare ourselvesfor hard and heavy tidings."After Pearl Harbor Churchillbrought this message to America. Theenemy may be "dazzled and dizzy withtheir own schemes of aggression andthe prospect of early victories." Theyhave misjudged us. It is "difficult toreconcile [their] action with prudenceor even with sanity. What kind of apeople do they think we are? Is it possiblethey do not realize that we shallnever cease to persevere against >»FINEST HOUR 112/9
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What kind of a People do they think we are? - Winston Churchill

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