The Lives and Reputation of our Ancient Island’s Defenders of Freedom now
at greater Risk.
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In the Daily Mail on Saturday the 24th July 2004, a timely
article by the eminent historian Max Hastings has outlined the grievous dangers
to morale of our illustrious Regiments from a politically correct Government.
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Death of a
Warrior Nation
Part 2
By
Max Hastings
In
the world of Posh ‘n’ Becks, which New labour manipulates so brilliantly, Dr
Johnson’s 18th century observation that
‘every
man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier’ sounds ridiculous.
Gordon
Brown, to name but one, would think meanly of anyone who had wasted his time
being anything
as
pointless as a soldier.
None
of this is intended to imply regret that our generation has not been obliged to
fight a war, as our parents and grandparents did. In our time, we have every reason to be thankful that we have
been spared a great conflict of national survival.
It
was Winston Churchill (who enjoyed battle more than most men) who wrote from a
South African battlefield in 1899:
‘Ah, Horrible war, amazing
medley of the glorious and the squalid, the pitiful and sublime, if modern men
of light and leading saw your face closer, simple folk would see it hardly ever.’
Yet something is lost, something precious, when a society and its
rulers wilfully crush the link with a great tradition of honour, adventure,
manners and daring-ideals that are alien to today’s Elite as Space Flight.
I
have always thought that monstrous tyranny the Health and Safety Executive the
most potent symbol of the New Labour spirit.
This
body which would have us walk every pavement in a safety harness, which hastens
to court at the first hint of a painter up a ladder without a helmet or a
swimmer daring to brave waters without a flotation suit, is the very negation
of the old world of empire its glories and its battlefields.
Here
is Winston Churchill again, a correspondent amid the Boar War Army, magically evoking the joys of
a young man hazarding everything in action:
‘What
does it matter that this or that is misunderstood or perverted; that so-and-so
is envious and spiteful; that heavy difficulties obstruct the larger schemes of
life, clogging nimble aspiration with the mud of matters of fact?
‘Here,
life itself, life at its best and healthiest, awaits the caprice of a bullet.
Let us see the development of the day.
All else may stand over, perhaps for ever… Existence is never so sweet as when it is at hazard..’
Churchill,
contrary to the slanders of his enemies, was never a warmonger. He understood better than
any man the bloody burden which conflict lays upon the innocent. He did not wish to drag peaceful civilians
from their beds in England to share his perilous adventures.
He
merely rejoiced, like Harry Smith, in the opportunities the life of a soldier offered to those like
himself.
It
may be argued that moral courage- more common among women than men I think- is
more rare and precious than physical daring, which comes naturally to some
young blades. It has often been observed that the roll of Victoria Cross
winners includes some remarkably stupid men, because cleverer one’s were too
canny to throw themselves upon death.
Yet
healthy societies through the ages have respected courage as the most conspicuous
of military virtues, together
With
a simple willingness to risk everything for the cause of country.
The
letters written by very young warriors, doing their duty in the knowledge that
its likely outcome was death, have justly moved readers over centuries.
Consider
the extract from one written in 1941 by a young bomber pilot to his fiancée:
‘The
RAF fighters and bombers combined will undoubtedly win this war in time, but
the end isn’t in sight yet and before it is over the losses will be
enormous. I wonder how many people ever
wonder what the average flier’s outlook on life is in these times? It’s almost
entirely fatalistic. There seems no point in making any plans for the future.
‘Darling, you’ll make me easier in mind if you promise
this: until we’re married, If I should
go up as ‘missing’, don’t wait too long. If anything happens to me, I’ll want
you to do a perm, do up your face, put the hat on and carry on. If I’m unlucky
I’m prepared for anything.’
He was killed a month
later.
Such has been the
spirit of young warriors through the ages. They did not want to die, but they
accepted the risk of doing so as the hazard of their calling,
whereas New Labour would urge them to appeal to the European
Court of Human Rights.
http://thewestminsternews.co.uk
http://eutruth.org.uk
[Added-February-May/2007]
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