One of the factors that limited the speed of Britains military buildup was Chamberlains fear of the deleterious effects that such a process would have on the domestic fiberindeed, the very quality of the British way of life.So Chamberlain was not as hawkish by far as Churchill and has to be criticized for his deliberately impeding the necessary military buildup for a long while thanks to his appeasement policy.
In the wake of the March 1936 German remilitarization of the Rhineland, the issue gained an impetus of its own. (Iain) Macleod noted how Chamberlain in November 1936 spoke out against a quick and total rearmament:It would be rash and panicky to follow Churchills advice that we must lay aside every impediment in raising our own strength, for the sacrifices demanded would injure trade for generations, destroy confidence, and cripple the revenue.In short, a balanced budget was a higher priority item than the buildup of a war machine for a conflict that, in Chamberlains eyes, might never occur.
I’ll admit that Chamberlain was late to the party. But there came a moment when he understood that not only was he wrong, but that his entire world view was wrong. Either shortly before or after the peace in our time statement he told a confidant that there was going to be a war.
President Carter has had thirty-plus years to realize he was wrong and hasn’t made the connection yet. He is so in-denial that he has become (or is letting it show) a Jew-hating Muslim apologist. He can not and never will believe he was wrong. And, can you imagine President I’m-a-better-policy-maker-than-my-policy-makers-and-a-better-speechwriter-than-my-speechwriters could ever admit that the chaos in the world is his fault?
(I, however, am in the alternative school who believes the chaos in the middle east is what either he and/or his Iranian advisers wanted and he’s okay with that. Still, he’d like to be loved as the man who “began to lower the oceans and cool the planet.” It galls me that he’ll be making about a half million per 20 minute speech and his time will be filled and even double-booked.)