“My grandfather invented Iraq”

The Wall Street Journal has finally made available the essay by Winston Churchill’s grandson Winston Churchill that ran in the paper last Monday. As the great man’s grandson, he is well situated to revisit the relevant history: “My grandfather invented Iraq.”
This essay is a moving tribute to the Churchillian grain of President Bush’s statesmanship. In some respects, our position vis a vis Iraq is like that of Great Britain vis a vis Germany in September 1938. When Neville Chamberlain announced the achievement of “peace for a generation” through the Munich Agreement on September 29, 1938, Winston Churchill of course begged to differ. Contrary to the exultations of the mass of his countrymen, he stated that Great Britain had sustained a horrible defeat without a war and that it would as a result have to face a horrible war as well. He urged his countrymen to “a supreme recovery of moral health and martial vigor[.]” He summoned them to “arise again and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time.”
Ladies and gentlemen, we are again about to take our stand for freedom as in the olden time.

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