Churchill and his Spiritual Children in America, Egypt, Syria, Russia and China

Today is Winston Churchill's birthday. For me, dear readers, Churchill was the single most important statesman of the 20th century. He understood long before the rest of the political leadership in Britain or America the full menace that Hitler presented to the entire world. Without Churchill in the late 1930s, Britain would not have been prepared and would have lost the Battle of Britain to Germany. Without Churchill, de Gaulle would have had no place to go to form his opposition-in-exile government or train his resistance movement and army, and no one to protect him against Roosevelt's dislike and preference to try to accommodate the pro-German Vichy regime of Petain in France...hence...no French resistance on the ground to sabotage the German occupiers and aid in the D-Day landing success. And no French leader influential enough to put the violently recriminating French countryside in order after the Germans were driven out in1944. And above all, there would have been no guiding giant to hold out hope to a Europe beaten into submission and terrorized by German troops and the SS. So, we remember Winston Churchill today. His seminal place in the 20th century can only grow as historians digest and summarize the century of totalitarian conquerors and their humanist-democratic opponents. Here are several of my favorite Churchill quotes - they could all be applied to today without changing a word. I think of the brave American Republicans holding out against the socialist tax-and-spend machine of President Obama that would destroy the United States but for the few who stand on the front line, led by John Boehner. I think of the Egyptians once again inTahrir Square to defend their liberty. I think of the Syrian freedom fighters and their army pushing on without help from an America under the shameful control of an ambiguous Obama. I think of the millions in Russia and China who are determined to be free despite the repressive political machines poised against them. They are all the children of Winston Churchill, as is every human being who raises a hand or voice for liberty and freedom. Happy Birthday, Winston Churchill ! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves." "This is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy." "There is something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty." "The destiny of man is not measured by material computation. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we are spirits--not animals."