If You Get ‘Peace Through Strength’…
THEN WITH WEAKNESS, YOU GET WAR
Sir Alan West, former First Sea Lord of the British Navy:
“[We are] very much de-escalatory, because we don’t want wars starting … Rather than roaring into action and sinking everything in sight we try to step back and that, of course, is why our chaps were, in effect, able to be captured and taken away.”
Victor Davis Hanson recommends a different tack:
“We are very much proactive, because we don’t want wars starting. Rather than staying inactive and being shot at by everything in sight, we try to step forward, and that, of course, is why our chaps were, in effect, able to fight back and prevent being taken away.”
Aryeh Spero’s “We Shall Not Fight Them on the Beaches; We Shall Not Fight Them on the Seas…”:
“Imagine a World War II movie with John Wayne and Robert Mitchum doing nothing while standing on the bridge of a well-armed war ship watching below as fellow American soldiers are being whisked away by a few Japanese in a small craft in the waters of the South Pacific. We would cringe in disbelief. It would not be soldier-like, patriotic, or manly. …
That is what happened last week in the Persian Gulf. A British naval vessel and crew stood by while Iranian boats pirated away a group of British soldiers. Reports indicate that the fire power of the British ship was capable of engaging and defeating the Iranian force. Moreover, British and U.S. combatant aircraft could have reached the scene in minutes but apparently weren’t called. The Royal Navy fired not a shot. How unlike the fire of Britain’s former First Seahand, Winston Churchill, who later proclaimed: “We shall fight them on the beaches; we shall fight them on the Seas.” …
Instead of taking action, the British ship commander telephoned home, to his superiors up the chain of command. The officer did what he was told: “Hold fire.”
Speaking of movies, perhaps they were filming a remake of “They Were Expendable”; does anyone believe that if a high-ranking politician or admiral were aboard that ship, headquarters would have blithely allowed them to be captured?
Is this the same vaunted Royal Navy that once ruled the waves? No, there must be a mistake. This must be the French Navy. No, wait–even the French will fight, if only against the Rainbow Warriors of Greenpeace.
Google ‘The Gulf of Tonkin’, Rosie? Hardly.
Google “Peace In Our Times” instead. Or “The Yalta Agreement”. Or this: “Britain has trembled like an ague at the report of a French fleet of flat-bottomed boats…”
Weakness is provacative. It makes war more likely, not less. It always has and it always will.
Someone had better tell the British Admiralty and Gen. “Blinky” Pelosi. And soon.
- Entries
And that's the fact. Animals attack which member of the herd? Scavengers? Why can these people elected to our rule not see this? How the hell can we continue to elect non-pragmatists? It WOULD be wonderful if the world really was sensible like the libs think it is. How can these people be so blind as to not see that we are NOT dealing with a mentality beyond the turn of the previous millenia? Be real. Fact IS, we are stuck with barbarians. "But we shouldn't lower ourselves to their level"? Do you want to live? Do you ask a first grader to do calculus? Duh!
What Would Hornblower Do?
I think we all know the answer to that question, and it is somewhere near "No captain can do much wrong if he lays his ship alongside that of the enemy."
And blasts the living daylights out of him.
Warspite charged up Narvik Fjord to destroy German naval vessels.
The Mediterranean Fleet defied the Luftwaffe to evacuate Crete and supply Malta.
That spirit is gone. I hope it is merely sleeping, not dead.
"Many thanks to you all for the timely help. Who said a Wasp couldn't sting twice?"
Spitfire, and Eagle, and Wasp. God knows we need that Spirit again.
Note, those were truly dark days, when there was an adversary who faced us in awful might. And now we shrink from one whose actual physical might is pitiful. Forgive us, our fathers, for failing to face the blustering bullies with the same fortitude that you faced the the very strong.
Maybe now it is appropriate to recall Kipling's 'Recessional'.
Lest we forget, lest we forget.
Dutch In the Medway
The Lesson