Comments on: The Value of History

By: Pat Healy

Pat Healy — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 22:50:57 +0000

Bill I was interested in Mark Newton’s explanation of the German/Britian interplay in the 1930′s. I recollect a small book in which John F. Kennedy commented on events in Britian in his naval days. It brings to mind regular, but fruitless, efforts by Winston Churchill to warn the government of Germany’s warlike developments. particularly its aeroplane construction.
Pat Healy

By: Jonathan Sarfati

Jonathan Sarfati — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 02:05:38 +0000

Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers,” not “blessed are the pacifists.” The pacifists in 1930s Europe were largely responsible for WW2. And like the west today, they didn’t believe a man who clearly stated his intention to wipe out the Jews. Nowadays, they seem to want to wait will Iran sends a mushroom cloud over Tel Aviv to take them seriously.

Jesus also said (Luke 14:31–32):

Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.

Similarly, Churchill and Reagan recognized that strength can prevent war.

Mark Newton: the reason the war was so costly to Britain is that they waited till Hitler was very powerful to wage it. Is the west now going to wait till Iran has nukes before they act?

Jonathan Sarfati, Brisbane

By: MurrayA

MurrayA — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 23:31:27 +0000

The more I observe the pacifist Left, the more I am convinced that “pacifism” is but a code word for “cowardice”.
Murray Adamthwaite

By: Jonathan Sarfati

Jonathan Sarfati — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 09:01:27 +0000

Dr Sowell is as insightful as ever. Another forgotten lesson from history is the revival of Nazi-like eugenics in the name of "quality of life" ethics and genetic testing. It's notable that like today, leaders in the medical journals support this today and supported it back then. According to the article Yale Study: U.S. Eugenics Paralleled Nazi Germany:

‘“Germany is perhaps the most progressive nation in restricting fecundity among the unfit,” editors of the New England Journal of Medicine wrote in 1934, a year after Hitler became chancellor.’

Jonathan Sarfati, Brisbane

By: Bill Muehlenberg

Bill Muehlenberg — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 08:36:21 +0000

Thanks Matthew
Dr Graham McLennan of the NACL had done a lot of work on Australia’s Christian history. His website is here: nacl.com.au/nacl/
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch

By: Matthew Mulvaney

Matthew Mulvaney — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 07:14:44 +0000

Speaking of history, Do you know of any books or online material that is worth reading to get a sound understanding of the Christian past of Australia?
Matthew Mulvaney

By: david skinner

david skinner — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 21:42:06 +0000

I fear that evolutionary humanism has already done half of the work of subduing the west without Islam having to do a thing; we are already Islamicised by our own ideology. What is the difference between the fatalism of Islam and the belief in blind chance of evolution? Both produce in the words of Churchill a fearful fatalistic apathy.
David Skinner, UK

By: Markk

Markk — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 11:33:11 +0000

I won’t comment here on Iran, but the depiction of Chamberlain as weak because of his appeasement policy is somewhat misleading.

It is true that Britain and France were very much keen to avoid war because of the carnage of the First World War. But there are two other reasons for their inaction not given here.

The first is the harshness of the Versailles treaty. The punitive measures outlined in that treaty were seen as overly unfair and harsh, as indeed they were. Germany had its territory greatly reduced and had to pay crippling reparations. The first aggressive actions of Nazi Germany, namely the sending of troops into the Rhineland and the annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland, were thus seen by many as righting the wrongs of the Versailles treaty and not just cause for a war.

It was only after Germany broke the terms of the Munich agreement by swallowing Czechoslovakia that popular opinion in Britain turned against them.

The second point not covered here is the Great Depression. During Hitler’s rise Britain and France were still in the midst of the Great Depression. Thus their economic ability to wage war was greatly diminished. It is no wonder they were reluctant to wage war under those conditions. Indeed, the British government almost went bankrupt under the economic strains of the war, and certainly would have if not for the United States.

Finally, it should be mentioned that far from doing nothing, Britain invested a lot in rearming during the ’30s, including the development of radar, which proved so crucial in the Battle of Britain.

Mark Newton, Melbourne