Sniping at the appeasers
A Geoffrey Wheatcraft opinion piece from the Observer about the folks who Just Don’t Get It.
Almost the worst thing about the bleating critics is their imperviousness to reason and complete lack of the intellectual humility needed to recognise that one may have been wrong. In the spring of 1999, I was one of those who deplored the bombing of Serbia. Elementary observation now suggests that Serb forces are no longer terrorising Kosovo, that Serbia is returning to something like democracy and that Milosevic is on trial. Would that have happened if we had dropped John Pilger, Julie Burchill and Simon Jenkins on Belgrade (tempting as that thought is)?
[…]At a time like that – and this – the only honest prescription is ‘pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will’. ‘KBO’ was Churchill’s even pithier version of Gramsci’s slogan: keep buggering on, recognising that it will be a long struggle, but that it has to be won.
Good reading, if not cheerful.
(Via Matt Welch)