by Lando_Griffin » Fri Nov 04, 2005 5:59 pm
"What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. 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.'. "
- Winston Churchill.
Some heroes have fallen, others are falling. Of one thing we can be certain:
Their efforts were not in vain. We have maintained our freedoms from tyranny, and upheld the freedoms of smaller nations around the globe. Those who were too weak to defend themselves from invasion by ruthless dictatorships. We helped them.
Britain has changed from protagonist to saviour in the space of the last century. Many would argue that we started the second Gulf War, but this is untrue. The evil Saddam Hussain took torture and terrorism to new, unprecedented levels. Often these acts of horrendous inhumanity were directed against his own people. His country invaded Kuwait, and had run-ins with countless others. He was the modern-day Adolf Hitler.
Until Britain, together with America, stopped his hellish rule.
Although I have an intense dislike for Tony Blair, it cannot be argued that he, in the face of massive opposition from France, Germany, and his own party members, stood tall and "maintained the right", to coin the Mounties motto.
Despite Blair's utter failings as a PrimeMinister in general, he got this decision right. British soldiers died - yes. But they died fighting for a weaker country's children. They fought for other human's freedom. They died heroes deaths.
Britain and the US may have many faults, but they saved a nation.
None of this would have been possible but for the super-human efforts of the veterans, and workers of the two world wars.
Our deepest thanks and grattitude is the least we can give them.
They deserve it.
Rafa Benitez - An unfinished Legend.