Well I doubt that Trump is reading this blogpost because he doesn't read anything but if I am mistaken Mr T, I have got news for you. You are no Abraham Lincoln! In fact you are no Barack Obama, no Martin Luther King Jr, no Franklin D, Roosevelt, no George S. Patton! In fact you are no James Buchanan, no Andrew Johnson and what is more you are no Warner Brothers' Porky Pig! Apologies to Porky.
It is exceedingly difficult for any other political leaders in the western world to manage healthy relationships with Trump because he is a playground bully without discretion or a recognisable moral compass. Thus far, other leaders have been obliged to kowtow to Trump because of America's economic and military power. However, it is obvious that they all detest him and privately mock him.
You have to draw the line somewhere and that is what Sir Keir Starmer did. After all, the joint Israeli and American onslaught upon Iran was not agreed with other nations and it is in clear breach of international law. Why should other western leaders be expected to just tag along like obedient puppies?
Many commentators believe that the lead puppeteer is Netanyahu here and he is looking to devastate and degrade Iran with zero concern for the Iranian people. Is that the way to a lasting peace? More likely Netanyahu and Orange Blob are creating a legacy of death and destruction that will return to haunt their countries in the decades ahead. Bullets and bombs are not the way. Discussions, economic sanctions, patience, intelligence and persistence - that's always the way you do it in the end.
And anyway, let's get back to this Winston Churchill fellow. He was by no means perfect either. There were views he held and things he did that were really quite appalling and ironically rather Trumpian.
He was a racist and an Islamaphobe. He called Indians "beastly" and opposed Indian independence in the late 1940s. He used troops to crush legitimate strike action by coal miners and in 1915 he championed the disastrous World War I Gallipoli campaign that resulted in huge casualty numbers. There are many other mistakes and character failings I could highlight including his dependence upon alcohol, his sexism and his upper class arrogance.
Although he proved himself to be a good wartime leader, he was decisively voted out of office by the British people as soon as World War II ended.
I agree that Churchill was an appalling man of his time, but he was indeed the wartime leader that Britain needed.
ReplyDeleteTrump can't hold a candle to Joe Biden either. Biden may have had his faults, but he was a kind and intelligent person who did what he felt best for this country and its citizens. He had a lovely and personable wife, and I wasn't worried sick about the future with him in charge.
ReplyDeleteChurchill read Mein Kampf and grasped Hitler's peculiar psychology.
ReplyDeleteHitler believed (wrongly) Germany lost the war in 1918 because the country
had been betrayed by Jewish bankers and communists.
Churchill was in Munich in 1932 touring German battlefields.
Ernst Hanfstaengl wanted to promote the Nazi cause by setting up a meeting.
One version says that Hitler declined. Another that Churchill declined.
There's a legend of a secret meeting on 11 June 1940, the subject of a thriller by
Len Deighton, XPD (Expedient Demise).
Deighton said he did not believe Churchill would have agreed to any negotiation
with Hitler. But there are two missing days in Churchill's engagement diary.
Sir Basil Liddell Hart thought Hitler possessed genius as a battle strategist,
but that he relied wholly on instinct. When instinct failed him Hitler was lost.
The Other Side of the Hill (published 1948).
Liddell Hart interviewed high ranking German generals for his book.