“Nothing New”: On Aggression & Inertia

Let us imagine a Country with an inordinate hatred. A hatred of a People. Whenever words are used to describe the vilified People, they are filled with abject vitriol and fiery contempt. The “enemy” is described as Degenerate, Vermin & Criminal and are threatened with Destruction, Erasure & Annihilation. This creed of vengeance is not a peripheral matter for the country, but is a belief system deeply, deeply set in its marrow. It informs, invigorates, inspires the Country’s actions and, in some forms, serves as its raison d’être. The Country has been in trouble before, has become a pariah state (except for the growing number attracted to its hubris and defiance), has flouted international law and has made promises only to brazenly break them. Again. And again. And again. It is a country preparing for war, but assuring its suspicious partners that it simply wants peace. Just imagine.

And now imagine that when that Country made assurances at pivotal moments (deeply consequential moments) when history could have been irreversibly altered, those with the power to hold that Country to account bent to inertia. They trusted. They soothed themselves. And they hoped. They hoped dearly.

And as aggressions ensued, a bit on their heels, but clinging to inertia, the countries with power bent further. And further. Hoping. Hoping. Always hoping.

But see, we don’t have to imagine. Because this happened. This aggression. This deception. This inertia. And one man spoke out. Concerned at first, desperate at last. He spoke out.

“Two things, I confess, have staggered me, after a long Parliamentary experience, in these Debates. The first has been the dangers that have so swiftly come upon us in a few years, and have been transforming our position and the whole outlook of the world. Secondly, I have been staggered by the failure of the House of Commons to react effectively against those dangers. That, I am bound to say, I never expected. I never would have believed that we should have been allowed to go on getting into this plight, month by month and year by year, and that even the Government’s own confessions of error would have produced no concentration of Parliamentary opinion and force capable of lifting our efforts to the level of emergency. I say that unless the House resolves to find out the truth for itself it will have committed an act of abdication of duty without parallel in its long history.”

– Winston Churchill, 1936 (8 months after Hitler invaded the Rhineland)

“For five years I have talked to the House on these matters—not with very great success. I have watched this famous island descending incontinently, fecklessly, the stairway which leads to a dark gulf. It is a fine broad stairway at the beginning, but after a bit the carpet ends. A little farther on there are only flagstones, and a little farther on still these break beneath your feet… Look back upon the last five years—since, that is to say, Germany began to rearm in earnest and openly to seek revenge. If we study the history of Rome and Carthage, we can understand what happened and why. It is not difficult to form an intelligent view about the three Punic Wars; but if mortal catastrophe should overtake the British Nation and the British Empire, historians a thousand years hence will still be baffled by the mystery of our affairs. They will never understand how it was that a victorious nation, with everything in hand, suffered themselves to be brought low, and to cast away all that they had gained by measureless sacrifice and absolute victory—gone with the wind!”

– Winston Churchill, 1938 (2 weeks after Hitler invaded Austria)

“I do not grudge our loyal, brave people, who were ready to do their duty no matter what the cost, who never flinched under the strain of last week. I do not grudge them the natural, spontaneous outburst of joy and relief when they learned that the hard ordeal would no longer be required of them at the moment; but they should know the truth. They should know that there has been gross neglect and deficiency in our defences; they should know that we have sustained a defeat without a war, the consequences of which will travel far with us along our road; they should know that we have passed an awful milestone in our history, when the whole equilibrium of Europe has been deranged, and that the terrible words have for the time being been pronounced against the Western democracies.

‘Thou are weighed in the balance and found wanting.’

And do not suppose that this is the end. This is only the beginning of the reckoning.This is only the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup which will be proffered to us year by year unless by a supreme recovery of moral health and martial vigour, we arise again and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time.”

– Winston Churchill, 1938 (5 days after the Munich Pact surrendering Czechoslovakia to Hitler)

And what did the powers say to Churchill’s warnings?

“I know some of you think I should speak more roughly to Hitler than I do, but have you reflected that the reply to a stiff letter might be a bomb on your breakfast tables?”

– Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, 1937

“This is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honour. I believe it is peace in our time.”

– Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, 1938 (after signing the Munich Pact)

Just imagine.

But this happened over seventy years ago. So very long ago. Very, very long ago.

Today, a Prime Minister spoke. And a Presidential responded. His response?

“Nothing new.”

So we know about aggression. And deceit. And inertia. Surely, we know.

Don’t we?