Saturday, September 25, 2004

 
A Tribute to GWB for seeking "peace in our time":

In "A Primer for Polemicists" Owen Harries cautions that using historical analogies can lead to off-point arguments. (Derbyshire, Hanson, Helprin and many others(including Yours Truly)however, frequently use WWII in this way to produce much that while not likely to convert an enemy, is highly gratifying to read. The analogies admittedly seem to demolish many arguments made by the fifth column left(and nutjob right)in part because it is taken for granted that we are in a war for survival against powerful foes. I find the analogies troubling only in that they seem to suggest that we are waging too *small* a war at this time.)VDH ends his piece, "Fading of a bankrupt generation" by saying that, like Neville Chamberlain, Dan Rather should "go." To someone such as myself, knowing only the bare bones of Chamberlain's trademark deal(ceding a sliver of Czechoslovakia to Germany on account of a preponderance of germans living in the "sudentland") at Munich, this seemed a little unfair to NC. Was NC's search for "peace in our time" soley to blame for *Hitler's* decision to take not a "piece," but *all* of Czechoslovakia?
Googling confirm a vague recollection of a defence of NC on NRO:"Dear Jay[Nordlinger]: I can sympathize with your [anti-Carter] mood. Reading Churchill's account of WWII, I was struck by something important: Chamberlain may be a symbol of appeasement, but he eventually woke up and dedicated himself to victory.

"I doubt Carter will ever have the moral clarity of Neville Chamberlain."
More to the point was discovery of the link pmaci.customer.netspace.net.au/csdc.htm
"Churchill paying Tribute to Neville Chamberlain in the House of Commons on 12th November 1940"
For reasons of space will paste only one of the paragraphs:
"It fell to Neville Chamberlain in one of the supreme crises of the world to be contradicted by events, to be disappointed in his hopes, and to be deceived and cheated by a wicked man. But what were these hopes in which he was disappointed? What were these wishes in which he was frustrated? What was that faith that was abused? They were surely among the most noble and benevolent instincts of the human heart-the love of peace, the toil for peace, the strife for peace, the pursuit of peace, even at great peril, and certainly to the utter disdain of popularity or clamour. Whatever else history may or may not say about these terrible, tremendous years, we can be sure that Neville Chamberlain acted with perfect sincerity according to his lights and strove to the utmost of his capacity and authority, which were powerful, to save the world from the awful, devastating struggle in which we are now engaged. This alone will stand him in good stead as far as what is called the verdict of history is concerned."
I urge the readers, if any, to read the rest of the piece, and to consider linking to any of their own websites. Powerful stuff, for me, at any rate, though born over a decade after the death of NC. And it can make one think, not of moral pygmies, some of whom could be fairly compared, not to Chamberlain, but to "Lord Haw-Haw," but of President Bush. He can be faulted for having too much faith in the willingness of Muslims(particularly those in Iraq)to fight against terrorism and for freedom and democracy.(-have a seared-in memory of him speaking of something like the "religion of peace" while behind him glowered some creepy domestic Muslim thugs)
Has Bush waited too long to give the Iraqis an "Or Else"(see May nromirror post and more recent stuff by Derbyshire & Helprin) ultimatum and would therefore be incapable of succeeding himself as his own Churchill? I've long wished that he would resign and "unleash" what I hope would be, if not a British Bulldog, an American pit bull of a big swinging Dick Cheney.(sigh - wish I could *write* like Winston-But seriously, the link to Churchill's tribute is worth a read-this yank found it kinda' moving, tho he's never been to Limeyland and hasn't the cross sectional area of say, a gnat, on the radar screens of say, a Stuttashire or Derbyford)