Voice from the Commonwealth Commentary, World Views and Occasional Rants from a small 'l' libertarian in Massachussetts
"If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest for freedom, go home and leave us in peace. We seek not your council nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams
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John Keegan is an excellent writer and has possible more insight than just about anyone around (even though he never served in the military) on matters of war and military history. Here he tells us what Sir Winston Churchill would do about Saddam.
Something certainly should be done. Saddam is not Hitler. He is, unfortunately, quite as megalomaniac but, while currently much weaker than Hitler ever was, potentially able to achieve greater power than Hitler ever possessed.
When - it is not a question of if - Saddam acquires nuclear weapons, the moment when he could be crushed without risk to his opponents, or of provoking a wider war, or of truly destabilising the Middle East, will be gone. At the moment Saddam could be toppled quickly, cheaply and without difficulty. The moment will not last.
Churchill would see the opportunity and, if in power, would grasp it. He would ignore the timidity of yesterday's men and strike.
He would avoid by any means the need to make the speech that he was impelled to deliver to the Commons after Munich in 1938: "Do not suppose that this is the end. It is only the beginning of the reckoning. This is only the first sip, the first taste of a bitter cup that will be proffered to us year by year unless, by a supreme recovery of moral health and martial vigour, we arise again and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time."
Britain did arise, at terrible cost. It could not have arisen had Hitler acquired nuclear weapons. The signs are, thank goodness, that President Bush is determined not to fall.
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