Sleepless in Surrey

Timothy Birdnow

Melanie Phillips takes a look at Once Great Britain and the fear the declining America is engendering there.

From her article:

In fact, it’s worse than that. In pulling up its drawbridge against Afghanistan and the Islamic world — while making nice with genocidal Iran and eroding the security of its putative victim, Israel — the US has now incentivised every jihadi, tyrannical regime and rogue state in the world to step up attacks against American and western interests, secure in the confidence that America will not respond with anything other than pious and useless virtue-signalling.

This anxiety is probably being articulated nowhere more painfully than in Britain. For Britain is supposedly America’s most powerful and significant ally in NATO. Yet Britain will not be able to fill the terrifying vacuum that has now opened up.

There was a time when Britain led the world in the defence of freedom. Slow to anger and stoical to a fault, the British were nevertheless once unmatched as fighters when their backs were to the wall.

What they excelled at over centuries was war in the defence of their island nation. Their armed forces were the envy of the world. And today, many in Britain still smugly tell themselves that they are quite unlike the "cheese-eating surrender monkeys” of France and the rest of the EU.

Alas, this is no longer true. While the armed forces still contain the very best of Britain, the British lion is now a mangy beast. Profoundly demoralised after World War Two by being in hock to the US as well as having lost its empire, Britain — no less than the EU it so unwisely joined — has for decades relied upon American might to keep it safe.

Coddled by decades of peace, consumerism and a culture of hyper-individualism, the British have become deeply reluctant to commit to wars in far-away places about which they know little and care less.

Like America and much of the rest of the west, they have taught themselves that their culture was born in existential sin and that its values are a source of shame and to be rejected rather than upheld and defended.

Like America and much of the rest of the west, they have taught themselves that patriotism is for scoundrels, that the very worst thing is to die for your country and that war must accordingly be replaced by negotiation, "peace-processes” and compromise with the enemy — otherwise known as appeasement.

Like America and much of the rest of the west, they fail utterly to understand the singular nature and scale of the threat posed to themselves by the Islamic world, both from within their own country and from without.

And like America and much of the rest of the west, they have become consumed by the malevolent fatuities of identity politics. Why should young people who claim to be terrified by the slightest perceived insult to their professed sense of self take much notice of people whose unwavering aim is to destroy western culture, render the west powerless and enslave its people, whether by Chinese domination or Islamic rule?

One quibble: later in the article Donald Trump is describes as "isolationist".
Asking countries like Britain to shoulder some of their own defense was considered "isolationism" by many, especially in Eurooe. They had a vested interest in our spending our treasure and blood so they didn't have to. Mr. Trump wanted more out of them and this was somehow "isolationist"? If Trump were truly isolationist he would have pulled America out of Nato and left Europe to it's own devices. He would have taken no action against Russia for Ukraine. He wouldn't have stopped the Russian pipeline into Europe.

But otherwise it's a wise and clear headed essay. Do read it all.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 08:51 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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