I am currently enjoying Roy Jenkins' biography of Winston Churchill. Having finished his even-more-wonderful biography of William Gladstone, I decided to re-read his book on Churchill for the simple reason that Jenkins is a wonderful, witty, thoughtful author. Just for the record, I also have the first two volumes of the "official" biography, written by Randolph Churchill, the one-volume work of official biographer Martin Gilbert, and the first two of the unfinished trilogy by William Manchester, so my Churchill library is a bit redundant.
I have reached the early stages of Churchill's first premiership, during the awful days of French collapse in the summer of 1940. I have dealt before, back in March to be exact, with the nonsense Charles Krauthammer liked to put out, that George W. Bush was Winston Churchill reincarnated. Anyone interested in why I think that might not be so should read the linked post of six months ago. Having reached this critical juncture of Churchill's, and Britain's, life, I thought it might be pertinent to make some further remarks, especially in regards to the too-often stated idea that we are engaged in a fight for our very national, cultural survival against the barbarian hordes of Islamofascism.
The first thing I might note are the words Churchill addressed to the House of Commons after having been elevated to the office of Prime Minister through complex negotiations with the Labour and Liberal parties. He finished a rather short message, to be understood as a kind of "stand by" message for Parliament, with the now-famous words, "I have nothing to offer you but blood, toil, tears, and sweat." Along with the differences of speaking style between Churchill and Bush, one looks in vain for any call to sacrifice on the part of George W. Bush. The entire administration continues to wage this war/occupation on the social, if not fiscal, cheap, fearing the public reaction to a call for national mobilization, the draft, the harnessing of our industrial output, rationing of foodstuffs, fuel, and other consumer items, and the regulation and control of wages and prices, all overseen by a Select Committee to ensure that none of those involved in government war contracts are engaged in war profiteering. Bush has, in fact, done the opposite of this - including the remarkable feat of cutting taxes at a time the administration insists we are at war (however undeclared that war might be).
At the end of the tense weeks of the early summer, when France capitulated and Churchill moved to neutralize the French Navy, including sinking or seriously damaging those ships at neutral ports and impounding those at British ports (the deaths of around 1300 French sailors at Oran was indeed tragic, but given the circumstances, defensible), Churchill gave another speech to the House, in which he prepared Parliament, and the nation, for the coming onslaught of what even he called "the battle of Britain" (not yet capitalized), which everyone, including Churchill, assumed would include an invasion of southeastern Britain. His magnificent crie de guerre ended with the even more famous insistence that, should Britain survive the coming onslaught of German martial wrath, no matter what else happened in the next thousand years, subsequent generations would call this moment in their national history, their finest hour.
Implicit in this speech, and more explicit in other ones, was the acceptance of the invasion of British soil by the forces of an enemy state, and the call to sacrifice not just comfort but life in the face of such an invasion. In other words, along with giving a spine to the British nation, he told the truth to both Parliament and the people, trusting them to accept the heavy burden they were about to bear.
I just wonder, if we truly engaged in World War IV, as some on the right continue to insist, where is the call to sacrifice? Where is the leveling with the American people over the true nature of the threat and the role we must play in national survival? Where is the legislation and executive power being exercised to do what needs to be done in the face of such an on-going national threat?
Of course, the answer to all these questions is that it is not and will not be forthcoming because (a) we are not engaged in World War IV; (b) the Republicans view sacrifice as something other people should do; (c) the military brass is opposed to a draft even as the military itself is past the breaking point due to the on-going debacles in Afghanistan and Iraq. I believe that, perhaps not Bush, but certainly his advisors, are quite aware that the rhetorical nonsense under which we have suffered for the past six years is a bunch of lies hiding the kind of power-grab they have been longing for. This makes their use of right-wing bloggers and journalists even more disingenuous because, while many of the latter are almost too gung-ho for belief, those in positions of actual power and authority are cynical enough to see them as, in Vladimir Lenin's wonderful phrase describing western Social Democratic parties, "useful idiots".
