Britain’s Lost Soul
In 2006, Andrew Sullivan wrote a book called The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It, How To Get It Back. It is a great book, written by one of Britain’s and America’s leading conservatives ‘with a conscience’, but that is, sadly, not what this column is about. This column is about the Iranian hostage crisis and the way Britain dealt with it.
If I were to write a book about this crisis, I would name it The British Soul: How They Lost It, How They Can Get It Back. The hostage crisis showed that Britain, once an empire, has become a country without a soul. The British people, once proud, confident, determined, and unwavering have become a people of complacency. “Rule Britannia, rule the waves� has become “Rule Britannia, rule the Thames, except for when doing so might prove difficult and / or dangerous.�
How did this all happen? When did it happen, is a question many non-British like myself ask themselves. What happened to the country that once told Hitler “give us liberty, or give us death, but we will never surrender�? What happened to the country that brought forth the biggest hero of the 20th century, Winston Churchill?
If the British were still proud of their culture, their nation, and their heritage, they would have taken the streets and protested before the Iranian embassy in London. Instead of protesting, instead of condemning the Mullahs ruling over Iran with an iron fist, the British people told their leaders to negotiate with the Mullahs. To do everything necessary to get the sailors and marines back who were kidnapped by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
Of course, this is something no one has to tell Blair and Brown et al. Their natural impulse in this kind of situation is to pick up the phone and ask the Mullah-thugs why ‘we can’t all just get along?’ Two days before the hostages were released Tony Blair said something that captures this attitude quite well: “we’re not looking for confrontation over this�, Blair told reporters, “and actually the most important thing is to get the people back safe and sound and if they want to resolve this in a diplomatic way the door is open.�
And that is where Blair is (/was) wrong. The most important thing was not to get the “people back safe and sound�. The most important thing was to “get the people back safe and sound� without giving Iran what it wants. Whatever happened, Iran could not be allowed to appear to be the winner of this crisis. Britain had to stand tall, refuse to give in and demand that the hostages would be released as soon as possible, if not – Britain would have acted. This would have included, if necessary, the building of a coalition to strike against targets in Iran although that option should, of course, be a last resort.
As to my question ‘how did Britain lose her soul’, I am inclined to believe that what caused Britains demise, what caused Britain to lose her soul, is moral relativism. Moral relativism, as taught on most universities, high schools, etc., has taught the British that their history is one of oppression of other peoples, that whatever Britain stands for is wrong and that whatever Britain’s enemies stand for is quite alright, or at least understandable and when a country like Iran does something unacceptable, well, it is most likely Britain’s fault anyway.
The answer to the second question, then, becomes quite simple: Britain has to break with moral relativism. Britain has to, once again, be proud of her history, of herself. Britain was once the most powerful nation of the world, those times will not come back, but Britain does not have to let the leaders of some third world country get away with kidnapping her sailors and marines either. When push comes to shove, Britain is still able to play an important role on the international stage. All she has to do is to regain her soul.
If she does not, I fear that both Britain and Europe as a whole will become increasingly weak and irrelevant. If Britain does what she needs to do, she will become the leader of Europe: other European countries will follow Britain’s lead.
If not, other European countries will still follow Britain’s lead, which will lead to more crises, and even disasters in the (near) future.
108 Responses to “Britain’s Lost Soul”
Sounds pretty insane to me, too.
That is why most, who are paying attention, can’t understand the ‘insanity‘ of the current administration.
SteveK
Well sorry SteveK. I work in the military industrial community. I get the scuttlebutt. I hear what the big boys hear. We talk about it at the water fountains when we are working on (fill in the blank) military system.
I am NOBODY important. There is nothing special about me other then I am a Neocon, warmongering, wealthy Republican who wants the world to end soon because all this prosperity is just getting too much to bare.
We need a Democrat to become in charge so they can take my money away again and make me poor and destitute and force me to use my mental health plan at work again.
Oh and SteveK
I bet if you and I got together we could talk to Steinway and the pentagon. If we dropped 3 steinways one after the other from b2′s we could penetrate those bunkers and fill the halls with the “Sound of Music”
I know steinways are expensive but they are probably cheaper then 31,000 lbs of explosive.
Kritter
How did they know the bunkers in Lebanon were built the same as the ones housing Iran’s nukes?
Because we watched them do it with sattelites in both Lebanon and Iran. The Israelis spent nights and days for years watching and filming Hezzbolah build bunkers near the front line between Lebanon and Israel.
MichaelF I feel your pain brother.
Because Muslim are killing Muslim it is our fault. If we just leave the killing will stop and all will be well with the world.
MichaelF. I feel your pain because the radicals are marching across the world. They are infilling nations with their radical ranks, slowly, ever so slowly absorbing western cultures and making it their own.
Europe is so blind that they don’t even see what is happening to them because of 2000 years of war they have surrendered to anything that will bring peace. While I feel their pain, I stand aghast at their actions.
Sometimes in history a war has to be fought.
I agree with you MichaelF. Choosing sides is rapidly no longer becoming an option. We know which side the antiwar is on. They hate and despise religion and yet they turn a blind eye to Radical religions who murder and kill in the name of their God. When the Christian West responds…..WE are murdering Religous Fanatics.
There is no sanity left in this world. The trouble is that the insane are calling the insane, Insane.
So if our intelligence was so good on that subject, why was the intel so wrong about Iraq’s WMD’s? Why don’t we know where Iran’s are?
I’ve never implied our intelligence is so good on the subject. If it was that good they would not have had to fight a 30 day trial run and then check out and see how it faired.
However
Kritter the assesment of where we went wrong in Iraq on WMDS was screamed down by the Antiwar as somehow giving Bush a pass.
Assessment
The sanctions which we felt were not working, worked. In fact they worked so good that Iraq literally was NOT able to make WMDS of any kind. They worked so good it was why the French were helping Saddam behind the worlds back. They were working so good that the UN secretary general was taking kickbacks from Saddam to help over look some of the sanctions.
However this was screamed down because it would appear as if Bush was being given a pass on his Stupidity for attacking IRAQ.
It is why this time around sanctions are going to be allowed to work on IRAN. Sanctions work better then anyone has ever dreamed. Look at North Korea. Look at Iran. Both country’s are trying to start wars because they feel its the only way they can survive in the face of sanctions.
Sanctions are meant for the country to give up its evil ways that have brought about sanctions. Neither country want to do so. Both will hold onto power and attempt in the next year to start wars. It is why the USA blustered outloud but let the hostage crisis play out. They do not want war. They can defeat IRAN with sanctions.
The war on terror was about deafeating the ability to fund terror. You cannot defeat terrorism but you can defeat the sponsors of terror. You can turn a worldwide Jihad into a crime wave, not a war. Defeating funding is the key to attaining that goal.
If you look at it in that context it is working quite well. North Korea and Iran the two primary sponsors of terror are on the verge of bankruptacy. Defeating Saddam Hussein cut off the desire for Palestinians to suicide bomb inside Israel. Cutting off funding to Hamas led Palestine has caused them to turn to Abbas to form a coalition government and join the world of humanity to some degree.
Funding is the key. The war in the middle east was never about winning hearts and minds and instilling democracy. It was about cutting off funding and cutting off the head of the snake of terror. That is being accomplished.
The exit strategy was instilling democracy. I will agree thats not working.
Britain handled the hostage crisis with skill because Britain has learned how to take its place in the community of nations, a lesson the United States has yet to learn. Perhaps Britain does so reluctantly, still remembering the glory days. Hats off to the Brits who managed this.
As for “moral relativism,” morality has always been relative to the resident powers of palace and pulpit, defining their take on things as pristine, and charging opponents with moral relativism.
When we learn just how relative things are, we might also learn how to speak civilly with one another.