CHURCHILL THE NOT SO GREAT
Not Churchill below.....But I'd vote for her over Churchill any day.
The blogs are pontificating, oraculating, and slobbering that what we need is another great leader like Churchill. Oh? Let's take a serious look at this guy. Churchill completely missed the Japanese threat in the Pacific for one reason: he was a total racist. He honestly believed that the Japanese were an inferior race, that their vision was so poor that they couldn't shoot straight (they all wore thick glasses), that they had no capablilty whatsoever to arm themselves, and had only beaten other yellow races (China, Mongolia, and Korea). It was his racism that allowed the collapse of Singapore by a force half the size of the Brits, a force that moved their forces by bicycle, not trucks. He was so sure of Brit racial superiority that he allowed two Brit battleships (Prince of Wales and Repulse) to be sunk by planes that he knew didn't exist and couldn't have flown there if they did exist. Japanese Zero fighters destroyed the "superior" Brit Hurricanes and so there was no Brit airpower. The campaign was summed up thusly:
"The whole operation seems incredible: 550 miles in 55 days – forced back by a small Japanese army of only two divisions, riding stolen bicycles and without artillery support."Thanx Winnie. This guy is the most over praised Eurocentric superior eliteist ever, and we don't need another one like him, or remotely like him. BTW, his views of India were similar.
10 comments:
Total nonsense and so what if he was a "racist". We're all racists and if it takes a racist to kill the Islamo-thugs then sign me up.
What kind of a fuckwit bashes a Churchill anyway?
Yeah, right. If we had him he'd regard all Muslims as towel heads, camel jockeys, cowardly morons incapable of any real war, and so on. His racism caused the loss of SE Asia to the Japanese and if were our leader he'd cause us to lose big time too.
He was pretty much a product of his time and schooling EXCEPT that he saw Hitler's on-coming socialism/fascism as a deadly threat to his Class; as opposed to most of his contemporaries who thought that only the Jews had to worry.
Almost forgot, I'd rather vote for her over me then over Churchill, heh, heh... Where'd you find her if I may ask?
Ahem...Howard, that is an exceptionally pretty girl under the Churchill heading...
B. Bartelson
I call Bullshit on this one.
Of course its always easy to look back on history though the cultural blinders and lenses of the present. Yes Churchill, along with almost the entire population of Europe and the US, did perceived the Japanese race as inferior. Japan had a military history to back up that perception. We (the west) had an incredible technology advantage over the East for many many years. Fighting with their spears, bows and arrows, swords and single shot bolt actions against our automatic rifles and artillery didn't work out well for them. That's why they could only fight and defeat other "yellow" races.
BTW, Japan also felt the same way about us. We were the inferior race then and still very much are today.
The real reason the English got their asses kicked however, was that the English troops hated their officers more than the japs. When the close combat started guess who the limey troops started shooting first. Hint: It was what some on the left call for our troops to do today, shoot the officers that lead them. The result was an un-organized retreat that left the British army decimated by the inferior force of the japs.
Enoch
Howard,
I like your blog and mostly agree with your takes on different issues. Here, I think you're off base. Churchill was less of a racist than most of his contemporaries and it showed in his behavior as both Colonial Secretary and Prime Minister.
As for the failure at Singapore, please do yourself a favor and go to timurileng.blogspot.com and read his entry about Singapore. This guy has a really good handle on a lot of the history of that battle and my own research (Ph.D candidate in British history at UT Austin) seems to jibe pretty well with his take. If nothing else, I suspect you'll find it well worth your time. Read the lead article, too, about "Japanese War Delicacies."
Thanks for taking the time to blog; it's always a pleasure to read you!
Mac
I used to know James Clavell, the writer of Brother Rat among a ton of other things. He was in Singapore and also told me that the officers were hated to the bottoms of their eliteist souls. Clavell particularly hated "Bridge on the River Kwai" because it was totally false and glamorized the fucking sadistic Japanese. However, the Brits were totally unprepared, had all their guns pointed at the sea and in spite of intel that told them the Japs were coming from the North the Brits did not shift their guns. Churchill may have been a representative of his class but a "great" man rises above his class.
Mac: I went to the site you suggested but it is the most over written stuff ever and I could not find what he had to say about Singapore. I can only tell you to do a Google search and look at any of the twenty or more sites relating to the "Battle of Singapore." Churchill was a racist, an empire builder and looter of colonies, and was responsible for the defense of Brit interests in Asia of which Singapore was job one. Like the novel "Being There," Churchill was just there when "it" happened. Her reacted like the superior Brit snob that he was.
Howard,
The article on Singapore is under "Previous Posts" (located on the right of the page) and is called "Singapore: Disastrous or Inevitable." Even if you think the site is overwritten, I really suggest you go back there and look at that article if you can spare the time. I'd be very surprised if you didn't find it worthwhile.
Incidentally, if you are really interested in seeing how the Japs a)took Malaya, and b)got handed their hats by the British once they figured out Jap tactics, read "Defeat Into Victory" by Field-Marshal William Slim. The Arakan campaign in Burma was where Britain finally got squared away about how to handle the Jap frontal masking assault/wide flanking maneuver combination that ate their lunch in Malaya. Later on at Imphal, in fighting that was the closest thing the Pacific War had to Stalingrad, the British gave the Japanese the worst beating they took on land in the Second World War.
Slim was the real deal, the best general Britain produced in the Second World War. He was a rough-hewn sort whose stolid exterior concealed a brilliant strategic mind. He was also a hell of a writer with a really good comic bent; read "Unofficial History" sometime and you'll see what I mean.
In addition, his men loved him--to them he was "Uncle Bill." I KNOW you know George MacDonald Fraser--the author of the "Flashman" series. If you get a chance, read his autobiography called "Quartered Safe Out Here" about his time as a 19-year-old infantryman in Slim's 14th Army in Burma.
Sorry for the digression; if you want to see a really analytical and relatively unbiased recent assessment of Churchill, I would also suggest "Churchill," edited by William Roger Louis and Robert Blake. They did a symposium (with participants from all sides of the historical spectrum)on him down at UT Austin (a VERY liberal university) in 1993 and the consensus opinion was that while he had his faults, they were generally less than most and more than made up for by his virtues.
Thanks again for blogging. You do a great job!
Mac
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