Excerpts from Winston Churchill III's brilliant speech in Houston a few weeks ago are in today's Wall Street Journal (subscribers-only). Here are a couple of passages that are especially relevant today as France announces its intention to side with Saddam against the U.S.
The parallels between Saddam Hussein's repeated flouting of U.N. resolutions -- 17 over the past 12 years -- calls to mind the impotence of the U.N. forerunner, the League of Nations. In the 1930s, the victors of the First World War -- Britain, France and the U.S. -- fecklessly allowed the League of Nations' resolutions to be flouted. This was done first by the Japanese, who invaded Manchuria, then by the Italian dictator Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia and, most gravely, by Nazi Germany.
Had the Allies held firm and shown the same resolve to uphold the rule of law among nations that President Bush and Prime Minister Blair are demonstrating today, there is little doubt that World War II, with all its horrors, could have been avoided. Indeed it was for that reason that Churchill called World War II the "Unneccesary War." Tragically, the same sickness that infected the League of Nations -- a feebleness of spirit, an unwillingness to face the realities of the world we live in, and a determination to place corrupt self-interest before the common good -- now afflicts the governments of France, Germany and Belgium.
The entire speech is still available for listening at Houston Public Radio KUHF.
Posted by Alan at March 10, 2003 06:13 PM