Flea: Winston, No. 5

August 07, 2004

Winston, No. 5

The Winston Review is a Flea-feature intended to offer spirited, uplifting alternatives to the defeatists and apologists of the mainstream media. This week we offer a tribute to the United States Marine Corps. Let us recall those inspiring, resolute words of the Marine's Prayer.

If I am inclined to doubt, steady my faith;
if I am tempted, make me strong to resist;
if I should mist the mark, give me courage to try again.

Amen.

One Hand Clapping discusses Marine sensitivity training. This is a timely reminder of the business at hand (via The Commons).

I am reminded of a dinner I attended just after the campaign in Afghanistan began. Another guest commented that it "wasn't fair" for US pilots to fly with impunity above Taliban positions, dropping bombs. I bit my tongue. Later, another guest said that the bombing "wouldn't intimidate" the Taliban.
I dived in. "We're not trying to intimidate them," I said.
"Then why are we bombing them?" came the question.
"To kill them," I answered. There was a long silence at the table. The concept seemed not to have occurred to them. With only a couple of exceptions, the others were university graduate-school students.

This week in the Red Box:

"Cry wolf, please" and "Cry wolf, please - Part II", Babbling Brooks decries those who would denounce terror alerts as cynical ploys.

"Demon with the Glass Hand", Belmont Club discusses the reluctance to acknowledge that horrors exist.

"Some day, some way", once, just once, Cold Fury would "love to see a press conference that went something like this" (via Speed of Thought).

"God bless America", Michael Coren praises our southern neighbours (via SWWBO!)

"90 Percent of Afghans Registered to Vote", the Associated Press' Stephen Graham reports a "resounding endorsement of a democratic experiment supposed to help Afghanistan turn its back on years of debilitating war" (via lgf).

"A Return to Childhood", Victor Davis Hanson points out a "return to the infantile delusions of September 10."

"Tributation", Kris McKenna salutes the United States military. Apparently "the Taliban HATE IT when they roll into town blasting Rammstein on the loudspeakers." Metal. And there is plenty more inspirational vid material to be found at GrouchyMedia.

"NanoDynamism vs. NanoTimidity", Glenn Reynolds asks if our mandarins are smart enough to learn from the experience of imperial China (via Argghhh!!!).

"Meaningless Multilateralism", Mark Steyn describes the extent of the NATO role in Afghanistan. It has been a poor showing.

"Rumour grew of a shadow in the east", Taylor & Company reminds us of North Korean death camps. The linked articles are horrific. Read them and remember: International ANSWER supports the government of North Korea.

"The Terror Web", Lawrence Wright discusses "political science applied to jihad" in the case of the Spanish abandonment of Iraq (via lgf).

And finally, under the last dispatch, we find a cautionary word thanks to Mike Campbell, Churchill scholar to the blogosphere.

"The worst difficulties from which we suffer do not come from without. The come from within. They do not come from the cottages of the wage-earners. They come from a peculiar type of brainy people always found in our country, who, if they add something to its culture, take much from its strength. Our difficulties come from the mood of unwarrantable self-abasement into which we have been cast by a powerful section of our own intellectuals. They come from the acceptance of defeatist doctrines by a large proportion of our politicians ... Nothing can save England if she will not save herself. If we lose faith in ourselves, in our capacity to guide and govern, if we lose our will to live, then indeed our story is told."

-- Winston Churchill, April 24, 1933

Your courage. Your cheerfulness. Your resolution.
Will bring us Victory.

Posted by the Flea at August 7, 2004 11:31 AM | TrackBack

Comments

Here's one for your link list:

cbftw.blogspot.com/

Especially a "Winston" posting.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at August 8, 2004 09:14 AM

Thanks, Fred. I have added the blog to the sidebar to check it out.

Posted by: Flea at August 9, 2004 12:06 PM

Ghost of a flea

August 07, 2004

Winston, No. 5