President Obama has been criticized recently for showing a considerable amount of rudeness toward Great Britain (e.g., the unceremonious return of the bust of Sir Winston Churchill, and a rather amazing lack of thoughtfulness in his treatment of the Prime Minister and his family).
In order to forestall another British invasion – which, frankly, I might not attempt if I possessed a high level of confidence in the likelihood that the British army would succeed in burning Washington again – I propose to give Sir Winston the floor from time to time, and invite him to repeat a few of his past remarks that might be germane to the times. If you please, sir:
“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”
A fine phrase, exuding wisdom. And when looking at results, one might not want to wait too long.
I assume you know about the site Winstonhurchill.org, full of great stuff including this:
ReplyDelete"I was brought up in my father's house to believe in democracy. 'Trust the people'—that was his message....I owe my advancement entirely to the House of Commons, whose servant I am. In my country, as in yours, public men are proud to be the servants of the State and would be ashamed to be its masters. Therefore I have been in full harmony all my life with the tides which have flowed on both sides of the Atlantic against privilege and monopoly."
—First of three speeches to a Joint Session of the States Congress, after Pearl Harbor, delivered 26 December 1941. (The others occurred in 1943 and 1952.)
Retread
At some point in the next few months, The One is going to have to ask the One-Eyed Git from across the Atlantic for more troops in Afghanistan.
ReplyDeleteIf Gordon Brown has any balls, he'll say; "Thanks for the DVD gift set - but I think I'll pass this time around".
One good snub deserves another.
To paraphrase Mr. Churchill:
ReplyDelete"Mr. Obama, you had the choice between insult and war. You have chosen insult, you will get war."
Or perhaps in the separate room:
Michelle: Ms. Brown, You are drunk!
Ms. Brown: Yes Madam, and you are cheap and uncourteous, but in the morning I shall be sober!
WP: stivaism: The fine art of keeping a stiff upper lip even when being spat in the face by your host.
Churchill also wrote:
ReplyDelete“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”
which Obama might have found off-putting.
Today the Obama Administration started taking economic advice from Twitter.
ReplyDeleteDear God.
adagioforstrings: For Obama (as the saying goes), that's not a bug, that's a feature.
ReplyDeleteWV goresol- beat that happenstance!
ReplyDeleteCheers