Stavros posted this You Tube clip on his website, My Greek Odyssey, and I am unashamedly borrowing it to headline this post. Max Hastings in the Guardian on Monday reviewed a new book called Just War by Lord Charles Guthrie and Sir Michael Quinlan. Both authors are practising Christians.
“Nations in general, and Britain in particular, go to war with astonishing insouciance. Since the consequences are so grave, it might be thought that decisions to fight would be subject to rigorous scrutiny and analysis before the tanks roll. Not so. Anthony Eden lunged towards Suez in 1956. Margaret Thatcher dispatched a task force to the Falklands in 1982 on the basis of a visceral political calculation, not a hard-headed military one. Tony Blair all but gave George Bush a blank cheque for support of US military action, first in Afghanistan, then in Iraq.
Gordon Brown has assured the House of Commons that in future it will all be different. Parliament will be fully consulted in advance. We should hope he means this, if Bush attempts a last reckless stab at Iran before quitting the White House.
Meanwhile, the prime minister would do well to spend half an hour with Just War, a new book by Lord Charles Guthrie and Sir Michael Quinlan (no more time is needed, for it is very short). The authors – respectively Britain’s best modern chief of defence staff and the cleverest defence civil servant of recent times – seek to provide a check list for national leaders contemplating military action.”
More on the book when it arrives!
Links to video clips of the Royal Anglians returning home:
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October 17, 2007 at 6:41 pm
Stavros
Glad you like this clip. Have you read Hitchens lately. I linked to his article in Vanity Fair in my post about the Perfect Weekend, although I think most of my readers failed to notice.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/11/hitchens200711?currentPage=1
I look forward to reading you review of this book. I have contemplated a post about this topic as it relates to Orthodox Christians.
October 17, 2007 at 7:34 pm
adifferentvoice
Lola Button liked it too! I did click on the link, and saw the picture of Mark Daly, but didn’t understand that the article below was relevant. I’ve read it now. Boy. But if Hitchens feels horribly responsible, what about Bush and Blair?
The book is very, very thin. A skeleton that makes me want to find some padding to fill it out. But I haven’t finished it quite yet.