Wars and Rumors of Wars

In War: Resolution

In Defeat: Defiance

In Victory: Magnanimity

In Peace: Good Will

The time is quickly approaching in the war on terror where the stakes will increase exponentially. There are dozens of rogue nations and terrorist entities attempting to acquire nuclear weapons as a way of gaining political legitimacy or as a method of pushing their radical agendas throughout the world.

When I read the powerful words of the 20th Century’s greatest statesman, Winston Churchill, I truly feel my inadequacy as a writer. He had a way of purporting the truth that could bring a chill down the spine of even the most hardened of opponents. Sir Isaiah Berlin wrote, “So hypnotic was the force of his word, so strong his faith, that by the sheer intensity of his eloquence he bound his spell upon [the British people].”

In an attempt to describe my feelings about the increasing saber rattling with Iran because of their stance on nuclear weapons and their commitment to destroy our Jewish brothers in Israel, I took the liberty of quoting some of Churchill’s most powerful speeches. Each quote, written over a half century ago, still rings true today. Substituting the words “communist,” “neo-Fascist” and “Russian friends” with “Islamic fundamentalist” or “terrorists,” and Churchill’s words could have indeed been written specifically for crises now before us.

His words stand as unwavering principles that can neither be delegated nor ignored. We must be careful in allowing an enemy, one that continues to threaten the demise of an entire people (Israel), to obtain an arsenal of weapons that can directly challenge either our sovereignty or the survival of millions. If they do obtain such weapons, we must have a policy in place that clearly spells out “unacceptable” behavior and the consequences thereof. Read Churchill’s words carefully, digest them conscientiously and meditate on them soulfully.

[Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat: 13 May, 1940] “You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, 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 terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival. . . Come then, let us go forward together with our united strength.”

[Iron Curtain: 5 March 1946] “It would nevertheless be wrong and imprudent to entrust the secret knowledge or experience of the atomic bomb, which the United States, Great Britain, and Canada now share, to the world organization, while it is still in its infancy. It would be criminal madness to cast it adrift in this still agitated and un-united world. No one in any county has slept less well in their beds because this knowledge and the method and the raw materials to apply it, are at present largely retained in American hands. I do not believe we should all have slept so soundly had the positions been reversed and if some Communist or neo-Fascist State monopolized for the time being these dread agencies. The fear of them alone might easily have been used to enforce totalitarian systems upon the free democratic world, with consequences appalling to human imagination. God has willed that this shall not be and we have at least a breathing space to set our house in order before this peril has to be encountered: and even then, if no effort is spared, we should still possess so formidable a superiority as to impose effective deterrents upon its employment, or threat of employment, by others. . .

“From what I have seen of our Russian friends and Allies during the war, I am convinced that there is nothing they admire so much as strength, and there is nothing for which they have less respect than for weakness, especially military weakness. For that reason, the old doctrine of a balance of power is unsound. We cannot afford, if we can help it, to work on narrow margins, offering temptations to a trial of strength. If the Western Democracies stand together in strict adherence to the principles of the United Nations Charter, their influence for furthering those principles will be immense and no one is likely to molest them. If however they [the UN] become divided or falter in their duty (italics added) and if these all-important years are allowed to slip away then indeed catastrophe may overwhelm us.”

Hear, hear!

All quotes from:

Robert Rhodes James, MP. Churchill Speaks 1897-1963: Collected Speeches in Peace and War. 1998. Barnes and Noble Books. New York.

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I presented these words in my very first Robservation for the Gazette back in May 2010. How things have remained nearly the same for almost a decade now. By now, everyone knows that on 3 January, Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani was sent packing to his very hot final destination via an American missile. Although he was clearly a monster responsible for the deaths of an estimated 600-800 Americans, our mostly worthless press is still calling his death an assassination; a word usually reserved for political victims, not operational military commanders conducting and supervising military operations from within a country, not his own, against forces with which his country is not at war. In other words, his death was a clean kill.

But a decade later, we are still dealing with Iran. I will be honest. I would love to see us and Iran as legitimate Allies. The Persian people can be wonderful, I have known several in my day, but their oppressive anti-American, anti-Israeli Theocratic government, unless they get their act together, is going to get a lot of good people killed and most of those who die will not be native English speakers. It is not just that they want nuclear weapons, their continued cry to destroy us and Israel makes their threats something to be dealt with. Remember the Churchill speech.

I was happy to see that within Iran, following the death of General Soleimani, people within Iran came out to protest their own government. Of course, our press is not covering any of this but there was one scene where there was an American and Israeli flag on the ground and the protesters refused to walk on them. There are several great photos of this. Likewise, there has been a rash of Iranian athletes defecting to the West. From our lamestream media, crickets. Even after increased Iranian civilian protests after their government admitted to shooting down that Ukrainian airliner after several days of lies and denials, our own media seemed to be strangely quiet on the matter.

The death of Soleimani has the potential to be a great win for the Iranian people if they can successfully topple their corrupt government or can be a bad omen since Iran has decided to officially pull out of the nuclear deal they inked under the Obama Administration. To be fair, they really weren’t abiding 100% anyway but now they have an excuse to justify what they have been doing all along. Regardless, the next year should be interesting.

As for the Iranian military, behind closed doors, they know the real deal. In public, they puff their chests and talk a great game of smack but when they look in the mirror, they want no part of what we bring to the table. None. Picture the Hulk spanking the snot out of a five-year-old brat and you get the picture. I find it funny that none of their missiles launched on the night of 8 January against American interests on an Iraqi airbase, hit anything important, but on their state-run television, they claimed to have killed 80 Americans. (https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2020/1/9/21059020/the-killing-of-iranian-general-quassem-soleimani) This way they saved face with their people and folks in the region without having their face squashed in the mud by us. No sane person wants war and I know we don’t. But killing our people or attacking our interests like oil tankers in the Straits of Hormuz will not be allowed to stand unanswered. So for me, I tell the Iranian people, good luck and I hope they are able to get the freedom they are looking for and deserve.