We remember Winston Churchill today as the British prime minister that won World War 2 against the Nazis. But during the 1930s, Churchill was alone and isolated in warning of the coming danger of war. Nevertheless, he tirelessly spoke about the coming threat and educated a generation that did not want to contemplate a return to the horror and bloodshed of World War 1.
Today there is one figure in American politics that fills a very similar role in this age of Obama where we appease our enemies, belittle the danger of renewed terrorist attacks, abandon our allies and prosecute some of the people that have made the biggest sacrifices in the war against Islamofascism since 9/11/2001. Just like Churchill, this leader is hated and slandered by his critics. This person is Dick Cheney.
Frank Gaffney has written an essay comparing the two leaders in which he quotes Dick Cheney in a recent speech about Obama’s policies:
He called the “abandonment of missile defense in Eastern Europe…a strategic blunder and a breach of good faith” and “a serious blow to the hopes and aspirations of millions of Europeans.” He observed that “The impact of making two NATO allies walk the plank won’t be felt only in Europe. Our friends throughout the world are watching and wondering whether America will abandon them as well.”
Mr. Cheney warned that “Anybody who has spent much time in that part of the world knows what Vladimir Putin is up to. And those who try placating him, by conceding ground and accommodating his wishes, will get nothing in return but more trouble.” He said the Obama administration had “moved blindly forward to engage Iran’s authoritarian regime” and “missed an opportunity to stand with Iran’s democrats, whose popular protests represent the greatest challenge to the Islamic Republic since its founding in 1979.”
Dick Cheney was at his most Churchillian in his defense of those who serve their country in these dangerous times: “To call enhanced interrogation a program of torture is not only to disregard the program’s legal underpinnings and safeguards. Such accusations are a libel against dedicated professionals who acted honorably and well, in our country’s name and in our country’s cause….For all that we’ve lost in this conflict, the United States has never lost its moral bearings – and least of all can that be said of our armed forces and intelligence personnel. They have done right, they have made our country safer, and a lot of Americans are alive today because of them.”
Winston Churchill considered his inability to prevent the carnage of World War II to be a personal failure. In truth, then – as now – the responsibility ultimately rests not with the watchman who sounds the alarm, but with those who fail to heed his warnings. We cannot afford to make that mistake again by ignoring the formidable insights and sound prescriptions articulated by our Churchill.
