Perfidious Albion
Mar. 3rd, 2014 10:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smokingbootI always passionately hated war.
Not quite true; I always passionately hated WWI. I couldn't hate WWII in the same way, because for all its horror, we couldn't avoid it. WWI saw to that. The war to end all wars, the war we could have avoided. This was why I hated it so much; because it was a tragedy we could have skirted around and just didn't. Everyone quotes Grey about the lamps going out all over Europe. I wanted to kick his face in, yes, and kick Churchill's face in too, he was so hopelessly eager for a fight. Cometh the hour, cometh the man. But before his hour he was a loud mouthed liability, rescued by a situation he helped carve into shape.
But WWI? All we had to do was stay out of it. Of course, there are excuses...we had to do something about German expansionism, we had made agreements we couldn't break because that is not who we were... I heard them all on an excellent Beeb2 debate hosted by Professor Niall Ferguson, who claimed that World War I was just a hideous mistake; there was much resistance to his stance, perhaps because it is so painful to think we stripped ourselves of everything we held dear, and sent our most loved to die agonising deaths out of stupidity rather than heroism. But that is what I believe it was. And the lesson is, f*ck the paper. It's not cowardice to refuse the fight. Fight well, fight ruthlessly, fight to win, fight with passion and reason united, fight forever to defend your love, but fight only if you must. Only then. And you may not win, but you will not be beaten.
But that, maybe, is an echo, Merlin's Isle of Gramarye whistling through my ears.
Less than 48 hours after the debate, the whole Crimea thing kicked off. Funny thing was, I was wandering round Woolwich last week, utterly lost, and I came across a lonely crumbling monument in red and blue stone. I couldn't get in, but I could make out bits of golden mosaic with doves and vines all over it, and a huge arch, commemorating the Napoleonic wars, and also mentioning 1854 and Russia. My guess was that it was about the Crimean War.
8 days later it turns out that the UK was a signatory to the Budapest memorandum, which we are now going to ignore; transpires the PM for all his huffnpuff talk about sanctions doesn't even want to stop trade with Russia. Why should we? We're coming out of a recession now, and God knows, we never ever say no to money. Even if it means breaking prior agreements.
And I don't know why I find this so hard to accept, when I have always felt strongly that WWI would have been avoided by a nice pragmatic refusal to get involved. I don't know anything about Crimea, I don't know anything about Russia really, except what Dad told me about his work there. OK, so the Budapest memorandum is just a piece of realpolitik; perhaps the aim was to get potentially rogue states to give up their nukes, for us to make false reassuring promises, hoping that we would never be called upon to make good. La Perfide Albion, Perfidious Albion we have been called; she who will not keep faith. And if it saves lives, so be it. Better a liar than a half witted killer of our own. Peace is worth it.
But I wish, I just wish, we would stop signing things we don't intend to honour.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152353965171754&set=pb.727806753.-2207520000.1393929928.&type=3&theater
Not quite true; I always passionately hated WWI. I couldn't hate WWII in the same way, because for all its horror, we couldn't avoid it. WWI saw to that. The war to end all wars, the war we could have avoided. This was why I hated it so much; because it was a tragedy we could have skirted around and just didn't. Everyone quotes Grey about the lamps going out all over Europe. I wanted to kick his face in, yes, and kick Churchill's face in too, he was so hopelessly eager for a fight. Cometh the hour, cometh the man. But before his hour he was a loud mouthed liability, rescued by a situation he helped carve into shape.
But WWI? All we had to do was stay out of it. Of course, there are excuses...we had to do something about German expansionism, we had made agreements we couldn't break because that is not who we were... I heard them all on an excellent Beeb2 debate hosted by Professor Niall Ferguson, who claimed that World War I was just a hideous mistake; there was much resistance to his stance, perhaps because it is so painful to think we stripped ourselves of everything we held dear, and sent our most loved to die agonising deaths out of stupidity rather than heroism. But that is what I believe it was. And the lesson is, f*ck the paper. It's not cowardice to refuse the fight. Fight well, fight ruthlessly, fight to win, fight with passion and reason united, fight forever to defend your love, but fight only if you must. Only then. And you may not win, but you will not be beaten.
But that, maybe, is an echo, Merlin's Isle of Gramarye whistling through my ears.
Less than 48 hours after the debate, the whole Crimea thing kicked off. Funny thing was, I was wandering round Woolwich last week, utterly lost, and I came across a lonely crumbling monument in red and blue stone. I couldn't get in, but I could make out bits of golden mosaic with doves and vines all over it, and a huge arch, commemorating the Napoleonic wars, and also mentioning 1854 and Russia. My guess was that it was about the Crimean War.
8 days later it turns out that the UK was a signatory to the Budapest memorandum, which we are now going to ignore; transpires the PM for all his huffnpuff talk about sanctions doesn't even want to stop trade with Russia. Why should we? We're coming out of a recession now, and God knows, we never ever say no to money. Even if it means breaking prior agreements.
And I don't know why I find this so hard to accept, when I have always felt strongly that WWI would have been avoided by a nice pragmatic refusal to get involved. I don't know anything about Crimea, I don't know anything about Russia really, except what Dad told me about his work there. OK, so the Budapest memorandum is just a piece of realpolitik; perhaps the aim was to get potentially rogue states to give up their nukes, for us to make false reassuring promises, hoping that we would never be called upon to make good. La Perfide Albion, Perfidious Albion we have been called; she who will not keep faith. And if it saves lives, so be it. Better a liar than a half witted killer of our own. Peace is worth it.
But I wish, I just wish, we would stop signing things we don't intend to honour.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152353965171754&set=pb.727806753.-2207520000.1393929928.&type=3&theater
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