PrintAugust 31, 2009
British courage, then and now
In May of 1940, when England's very survival was in doubt, as Winston Churchill took over as Prime Minister from Neville "peace in our time" Chamberlain, he told the British Parliament
I say to the House as I said to ministers who have joined this government, I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many months of struggle and suffering.You ask, what is our policy? I say it is to wage war by land, sea, and air. War with all our might and with all the strength God has given us, and to wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark and lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy.You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory. Victory at all costs - Victory in spite of all terrors - Victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival.
A month later, as the British army was forced to flee from Dunkirk and France was about to fall to the Nazis, Churchill again defiantly spoke to Parliament
Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail.We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the Old.
Two weeks later, as France was about to capitulate to the Germans, Churchill again rallied his nation while speaking to Parliament.
I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their finest hour."
Sixty nine years later, as more facts emerge about the British blood for oil trade in one of their lowest moments, the survival of an independent England seems ever in doubt as the British are unable to sacrifice some toil and sweat, and won't even fight for their own homes.
The bomber served a week and a half for each person massacred on the Pan Am flight. More bleak hours for the country are to come as the consequences of this continue. Will we have to bail them out? Ah, but we are a different country also; while Gordon Brown is certainly no Winston Churchill, President Barack Obama (D) is definitely not President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (D).
