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The "warlord" label is fatuous, Churchill was the political leader of the world?s premier super-power (empire) at the time of near global war. I will admit that technically/legally Britain started the war by declaring it but that was because the Germans had a nasty habit of not bothering to do so even after the shooting had started. I think I am correct in saying that the only country they ever publicly declared war on was the United States and that was mainly to keep the Jap allies happy.
It has been well argued that Churchill had insight and comprehension of the Nazi "problem" long before the rest of the Westminster political animal had any inkling, or at least wanted to admit the problem. He made few friends and was frequently perceived as a fool for his vocal denunciation of the Nazi "menace" long before the war. When Poland fell and it was difficult for even the most cowardly to dismiss the impending conflagration Westminster rallied to him, his pervious ?sins? forgiven as their short sightedness and denial had left them running a shockingly ill prepared and weakened empire. Churchill had been responsible for the Navy in his previous political life and had continued to campaign for a strong military, this had not been maintained to a suitable level by the pre-war governments leaving the Axis forces a far larger threat than they should have been and ultimately prolonging the impending war.
He was shockingly (especially to allies like the US) elected out of power shortly after the end of the war as people wanted a clean start after years of toil and horror. They admired him but thought him a great war leader when what they wanted now was a new socialist start. They elected him back into power some years later (with mixed results) as they felt they needed another strong leader in a time of crisis, albeit a somewhat different one.
He was a noble man and only our change of outlook on the relative merits of ethnic/genetic difference makes us judge him harshly but it was the common outlook of the time. There had been discussion about the use of the atom bomb on Germany (had it been ready before the Nazi surrender) but it was judged to be unthinkable to use it on another Western ?civilised? nation and was reserved for use on Japan (ironically what I judge to be about the most civilised nation in the world, at least now anyway). The view that the colonies and non-caucasian races must be inferior was almost universal. An example of this was the common belief that Japanese pilots must be inferior as they could not see through their ?slitty? eyes, this was swiftly disproven at Pearl Harbour and the subsequent sinking of a British battleship and battlecruiser near Singapore whilst under full steam the very next day (this was the first time a capitol warship had been sunk by aircraft while manoeuvring and had always been thought to be impossible by many who should have known better). Ask yourself if it was worth spending the entire wealth of the world?s largest empire to fight the Germans twice, taking us from the world superpower to the poor man of Europe. Ultimately all we succeeded in doing was gifting the United States a financial empire in the space of a few short years.
I am of the near unique opinion that whilst a great man he was also arguably a fool. Hitler never wanted war with Britiain as he admired us and thought the empire as a great controlling, policing and calming force in the world. He ?merely? wanted parity in power for Germany with England. Whilst we clearly could never have allowed that to happen I do think an opportunity to ally ourselves with Germany and carve Europe and the world up between us with missed. Equally this would probably have prevented some of worse excesses that the Germans carried out such as mass exterminations. We would finally have conquered France and we would probably still have an Empire to this day. I somehow suspect if that would have been the case we would not now have such a changed view on the races of the world and would still deem them as inferior. Make of that what you will but try to remember that you are looking at this through the value set of our current society. What I have said above is probably abhorrent to many of you but had history been different most people would possibly think exactly that way.
Before you start screaming about the holocaust, remember the concentration camp was a British invention in the Boar war so we are just as guilty of ethnic cleansing and self denial about our actions. Churchill fought and reported on the Boar war but he certainly did not invent the concentration camp. In the past that behaviour was acceptable, or at least not talked about in polite conversation. Unsurprisingly the Germans took that idea and ?perfected? it in a way that only Germans could.
It has been well argued that Churchill had insight and comprehension of the Nazi "problem" long before the rest of the Westminster political animal had any inkling, or at least wanted to admit the problem. He made few friends and was frequently perceived as a fool for his vocal denunciation of the Nazi "menace" long before the war. When Poland fell and it was difficult for even the most cowardly to dismiss the impending conflagration Westminster rallied to him, his pervious ?sins? forgiven as their short sightedness and denial had left them running a shockingly ill prepared and weakened empire. Churchill had been responsible for the Navy in his previous political life and had continued to campaign for a strong military, this had not been maintained to a suitable level by the pre-war governments leaving the Axis forces a far larger threat than they should have been and ultimately prolonging the impending war.
He was shockingly (especially to allies like the US) elected out of power shortly after the end of the war as people wanted a clean start after years of toil and horror. They admired him but thought him a great war leader when what they wanted now was a new socialist start. They elected him back into power some years later (with mixed results) as they felt they needed another strong leader in a time of crisis, albeit a somewhat different one.
He was a noble man and only our change of outlook on the relative merits of ethnic/genetic difference makes us judge him harshly but it was the common outlook of the time. There had been discussion about the use of the atom bomb on Germany (had it been ready before the Nazi surrender) but it was judged to be unthinkable to use it on another Western ?civilised? nation and was reserved for use on Japan (ironically what I judge to be about the most civilised nation in the world, at least now anyway). The view that the colonies and non-caucasian races must be inferior was almost universal. An example of this was the common belief that Japanese pilots must be inferior as they could not see through their ?slitty? eyes, this was swiftly disproven at Pearl Harbour and the subsequent sinking of a British battleship and battlecruiser near Singapore whilst under full steam the very next day (this was the first time a capitol warship had been sunk by aircraft while manoeuvring and had always been thought to be impossible by many who should have known better). Ask yourself if it was worth spending the entire wealth of the world?s largest empire to fight the Germans twice, taking us from the world superpower to the poor man of Europe. Ultimately all we succeeded in doing was gifting the United States a financial empire in the space of a few short years.
I am of the near unique opinion that whilst a great man he was also arguably a fool. Hitler never wanted war with Britiain as he admired us and thought the empire as a great controlling, policing and calming force in the world. He ?merely? wanted parity in power for Germany with England. Whilst we clearly could never have allowed that to happen I do think an opportunity to ally ourselves with Germany and carve Europe and the world up between us with missed. Equally this would probably have prevented some of worse excesses that the Germans carried out such as mass exterminations. We would finally have conquered France and we would probably still have an Empire to this day. I somehow suspect if that would have been the case we would not now have such a changed view on the races of the world and would still deem them as inferior. Make of that what you will but try to remember that you are looking at this through the value set of our current society. What I have said above is probably abhorrent to many of you but had history been different most people would possibly think exactly that way.
Before you start screaming about the holocaust, remember the concentration camp was a British invention in the Boar war so we are just as guilty of ethnic cleansing and self denial about our actions. Churchill fought and reported on the Boar war but he certainly did not invent the concentration camp. In the past that behaviour was acceptable, or at least not talked about in polite conversation. Unsurprisingly the Germans took that idea and ?perfected? it in a way that only Germans could.
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