Posted on 02/09/2006 9:30:39 AM PST by Neville72
Sir Winston S. Churchill -- the same man who would go on to lead the free world through its darkest hours during the second world war -- tells the tale of the Anglo-Egyptian reconquest of the Sudan. It isn't just an account of the battles and the politics; it's the story of the destiny of the people of the region: Churchill with his powerful insight tells the the war changed the fates of England, Egypt, and the Arabian peoples in northeast Africa.
Sir Winston Churchill (The River War, first edition, Vol. II, pages 248-50 (London: Longmans, Green | 1899
"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism[72 virgins, I'm assuming] deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity.
The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities - but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome."
What I find terribly disturbing today is that the nut job leaders of Iran believe that they can bring about the coming of the Mahdi very soon. Apparently there is a belief among Muslims that the Mahdi will come after a great conflagration and unite the human race. They believe that he will literally bring order after a period of great chaos. Analysts believe that if Iran gets a bomb they may attempt to usher in this period of chaos by using it. Apparently Iran's Ahmadinejad believes that they can bring about the coming of the Mahdi by 2007.
The scary thing is that Christian's believe in the Mahdi too. We just call him the anti-Christ.
Thanks, I just added Khartoum to my Netflix queue (love the old epics). I'll pass on 4 Feathers because of negative feedback from people who have seen it.
A few folks at the White House & Foggy Bottom should read this.
Thanks for the ping.
This is VERY interesting.
Maybe, but more likely the attitude that "A woman is a duty but a boy is a joy".
Who obviously read Churchill as well as Guderian and Rommel.
for the forum, here's a link to the IMDB site on the film about The Hadhi:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060588/
All great minds think alike.
That being said, he was still properly accessed as "the last Victorian" and that world view was tempered by the faults of that era.
The governmental structures of the middle east were left ill formed and vestigial by Winston and similar world leaders and we have battled problems for seven decades from the effects of the pre-WWI and post WWI structures they set up that were viewed as benevolent at the time.
In the Indian subcontinent, the residual influence of British Order proved to be a beneficial underlying stabilizer as colonialism was removed -- but WC never thought of Gandhi and the movement around him as little more than a "middle temple lawyer." (A trouble making ambulance chaser) He mistook his aesthetic rather than his nationalism as his central strength.
The Shahs handed power in the middle east had in most instances no beneficial order or the west to moderate them entering the modern world. We got the Nazi partners of the forties and the Wahbists because of that.
Some, such a Egypt and Jordan came through the century with a modern influence, but Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Arabian peninsula were all just so much parceled out fiefdoms to those that the Europeans thought "they could work with."
Kurds and others rightly don't look upon him like we do after a hundred years of western initiated subjugation. Sure, he saw the cultural problems and dangers, but seeing them the western liberal governments froze out the resolutions that were needed and made the problems of today more fixed in stone.
Winston S. Churchill, 1896
I love it. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Okay, it's on the queue too. Thanks.
Crap - now there will be a call to ban the works of Winston Churchill. /sarc
What's even more amazing is that Churchill was only 24 when he wrote that. By the way, I'm happy to say that our company, St. Augustine's Press, will be publishing the definitive edition of the two-volume set of THE RIVER WAR later this year.
Saintgus
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