Sir Winston is speaking to us –through another Prime Minister. Will we listen?

I have been deeply troubled by what I see as eerily similar parallels between Sir Winston’s repeated warnings from the time of Hitler’s rise in the early ’30’s to the Munich debacle in  late ’38 and the cautionary notes being voiced by the few remaining statesmen of our time, led most forcefully and presciently by Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel. We seem to be led in this age of cowardice and pusillanimity by a group of whippets with their tails between their legs, utter fools like Obama, Reid, and Kerry and, it seems, almost every Democrat in Congress, all too ready to roll over and perform on command by their murderous masters in Tehran. Their guiding ideology appears to be, as phrased by the late and enormously respected diplomat, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, “blame America first”. They tried,  thankfully not only unsuccessfully but embarrassingly so, to defeat the Prime Minister in his re-election campaign, making an all-out effort to take out one of the staunchest allies this Nation has in the world– and the only one in the Middle East with the possible exception of President al-Sisi of Egypt. What can possibly explain this kind of aberrant behavior which is now manifesting itself in a totally irrational drive to say “yes” to everything Iran– the world’s most dangerous exporter of terrorism– demands? I would argue it is the desire of the ultra-left to “punish” the greatest Nation the world has ever known for all of its many sins against the “downtrodden” of the world– and those in the underclasses of our own Nation.

These long-simmering concerns were considerably heightened recently by a confluence of two experiences–watching every minute of the Prime Minister’s address to a Joint Session of Congress a few weeks ago and reading the speech of another Prime Minister whose name will forever remain a symbol of the eternal fight for liberty and freedom from totalitarianism, Sir Winston Churchill, on October 5, 1938, after the John Kerry of his day, Neville Chamberlain, returned from Munich with his piece of paper “signed by Herr Hitler.”

One cannot consider these two events together without fully concurring in the thoughts so eloquently expressed by Dr. Thomas Sowell, under the title “A Churchill for our time”, nor can one view those two documents together without wondering whether The President of the United States and its Secretary of State have, quite simply, taken leave of their senses– or, not to put too fine a point on it, perhaps there is a far darker explanation for their determination to be sure that Iran gets the bomb 10 years after our generation’s Munich Agreement.

Lest one accuse those of us who believe we have very sound and legitimate reasons to wonder just exactly what is the actual agenda of the Obama administration (an oxymoron if there ever was one!) in pushing so hard for such a total and ignominious surrender to a Nation in which Friday prayers traditionally end with shouting “Death to America!”, it is quite revealing to remember parts of the speeches of both Prime Ministers.

In his speech to the House of Commons on October 5, 1938, Sir Winston, referring to the then-Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returning from Munich with his disgracefully worthless piece of paper signed by Hitler, made these comments which could easily match today’s nightmare with the substitution of just a few words:

“The Prime Minister desires to see cordial relations between this country and Germany. There is no difficulty at all in having cordial relations between the peoples. Our hearts go out to them. But they have no power. But never will you have friendship with the present German Government. You must have diplomatic and correct relations, but there can never be friendship between the British democracy and the Nazi power, that power which spurns Christian ethics, which cheers its onward course by a barbarous paganism, which vaunts the spirit of aggression and conquest, which derives strength and perverted pleasure from persecution, and uses, as we have seen, with pitiless brutality the threat of murderous force. That power cannot ever be the trusted friend of the British democracy.”

As brilliant a genius as Sir Winston was, he  could not possibly have known in 1938 that he would be describing the mad dog regime of the Ayatollahs of Iran, whose representatives we see in news photos daily being “friendly” with the official diplomatic representative of the United States in Geneva, a sight to turn the strongest stomach as it carries a strong message that the Chamberlain of our day actually believes these animals can be trusted to “negotiate” in “good faith”, a concept with which they have never been burdened, and with which they never will have even a nodding acquaintance as long as this regime of butchers is in power.

Speaking of the reception Sir Winston received in response to his many warnings of dire consequences if “Herr Hitler” was not recognized for what he was—a cruel, ruthless, murdering monster—Dr. Sowell wrote:

“The parallels between the two leaders do not end there. Both warned the world of mortal dangers that others ignored, in hopes that those dangers would go away. In the years leading up to World War II, Churchill tried to warn the British, and the democratic nations in general, of what a monstrous threat Hitler was. Despite Churchill’s legendary status today, he was not merely ignored but ridiculed at the time, when he was repeatedly warning in vain. Knowing that his warnings provoked only mocking laughter in some quarters, even among some members of his own party, he said on March 14, 1938 in the House of Commons, “Laugh but listen.” Just two years later, with Hitler’s planes bombing London, night after night, the laughter was gone. Many at the time thought that Britain itself would soon be gone as well, like other European nations that succumbed to the Nazi blitzkrieg in weeks (like France) or days (like Holland).”

As it was with Sir Winston, Prime Minister Netanyahu has been demeaned, ridiculed, besmirched and insulted by members of the Obama administration, including, disgracefully, the President himself. In what must be a first in our Nation’s history—and, let us pray, the last, as well—a member of his administration called him “a chickenshit”. They also said, astonishingly, coming from this flock of Chamberlains, that he was weak and afraid to go to war. Strangely missing from those statements was the fact that he restrained his forces in response to the specific request of the current administration.

In order to set the stage for a consideration of “A Churchill for our Time”, it might be helpful to modify, ever so slightly and with trembling humility in assuming the ability to even attempt any alteration of Sir Winston’s mastery of the English language, his statement noted above so as to have it fit our current unfolding tragedy:

“The [President] desires to see cordial relations between this country and [Iran]. There is no difficulty at all in having cordial relations between the peoples. Our hearts go out to them. But [the Iranian people] have no power. But never will you have friendship with the present [Islamic Republic of Iran]. You [may] have diplomatic and correct relations, but there can never be friendship between the [American] democracy and the [Ayatollahs of that regime], which spurns Christian ethics [and swears an oath to annihilate the Jewish State of Israel], which cheers its onward course by a barbarous paganism [including beheading, mutilation and  burning alive its “infidel” enemies], which vaunts the spirit of aggression and conquest, which derives strength and perverted pleasure from persecution, and uses, as we have seen, with pitiless brutality the threat of murderous force. That power,[ Iran], cannot ever be the trusted friend of the [American] democracy.”

Our modern-day Churchill spoke to Congress recently and both the general theme of his remarks as well as some of his phraseology echoed eerily across the ages the words of Sir Winston of the 1930’s, such as this passage in which he urged Congress, and, of course, the coward in the White House and his fellow Chamberlain in the State Department, to see the Mullahs for what they were, just as Sir Winston did in 1938 about “Herr Hitler”:

“For those who believe that Iran threatens the Jewish state, but not the Jewish people, listen to Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, Iran’s chief terrorist proxy. He said: If all the Jews gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of chasing them down around the world.

But Iran’s regime is not merely a Jewish problem, any more than the Nazi regime was merely a Jewish problem. The 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis were but a fraction of the 60 million people killed in World War II. So, too, Iran’s regime poses a grave threat, not only to Israel, but also the peace of the entire world. To understand just how dangerous Iran would be with nuclear weapons, we must fully understand the nature of the regime.

The people of Iran are very talented people. They’re heirs to one of the world’s great civilizations. But in 1979, they were hijacked by religious zealots — religious zealots who imposed on them immediately a dark and brutal dictatorship.

That year, the zealots drafted a constitution, a new one for Iran. It directed the revolutionary guards not only to protect Iran’s borders, but also to fulfill the ideological mission of jihad. The regime’s founder, Ayatollah Khomeini, exhorted his followers to “export the revolution throughout the world.”

I’m standing here in Washington, D.C. and the difference is so stark. America’s founding document promises life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Iran’s founding document pledges death, tyranny, and the pursuit of jihad. And as states are collapsing across the Middle East, Iran is charging into the void to do just that.

Iran’s goons in Gaza, its lackeys in Lebanon, its revolutionary guards on the Golan Heights are clutching Israel with three tentacles of terror. Backed by Iran, Assad is slaughtering Syrians. Back by Iran, Shiite militias are rampaging through Iraq. Backed by Iran, Houthis are seizing control of Yemen, threatening the strategic straits at the mouth of the Red Sea. Along with the Straits of Hormuz, that would give Iran a second choke-point on the world’s oil supply.

Just last week, near Hormuz, Iran carried out a military exercise blowing up a mock U.S. aircraft carrier. That’s just last week, while they’re having nuclear talks with the United States. But unfortunately, for the last 36 years, Iran’s attacks against the United States have been anything but mock. And the targets have been all too real.

Iran took dozens of Americans hostage in Tehran, murdered hundreds of American soldiers, Marines, in Beirut, and was responsible for killing and maiming thousands of American service men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

After making it crystal clear what kind of gang of thugs the adversary is in this contest, Prime Minister Netanyahu gave invaluable insights into what the future course of action should be in dealing with them, instead of the present course of abject surrender being followed by Obama and Kerry and their ultra-left cheerleaders:

“This deal won’t be a farewell to arms. It would be a farewell to arms control. And the Middle East would soon be crisscrossed by nuclear tripwires. A region where small skirmishes can trigger big wars would turn into a nuclear tinderbox.

If anyone thinks — if anyone thinks this deal kicks the can down the road, think again. When we get down that road, we’ll face a much more dangerous Iran, a Middle East littered with nuclear bombs and a countdown to a potential nuclear nightmare.

Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve come here today to tell you we don’t have to bet the security of the world on the hope that Iran will change for the better. We don’t have to gamble with our future and with our children’s future.

We can insist that restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program not be lifted for as long as Iran continues its aggression in the region and in the world.

Before lifting those restrictions, the world should demand that Iran do three things. First, stop its aggression against its neighbors in the Middle East.

Second, stop supporting terrorism around the world.

And third, stop threatening to annihilate my country, Israel, the one and only Jewish state.”

The similarities of the warnings of the two Prime Ministers are quite simply uncanny, and while the Obama administration, along with its ghastly Secretary of State, simply plods along ignoring all warnings, we can be most thankful that the Congress has taken his admonitions to heart, by the letter of 47 Senators to the top Mullah and the letter to the President signed by a huge majority of the House of Representatives, leaving no doubt that there will be a significant battle if, as seems clear, the administration tries to cram this act of surrender down the throats of the American people.

Some other words of Sir Winston sum up what we are now facing under the leadership of ignoramuses like Obama and Kerry, from which only the genius of our Founding Fathers in the creation of our system of checks and balances can save us:

“We are in the presence of a disaster of the first magnitude….”

I pray that our true leaders will follow the wise counsel of two great Prime Ministers, and turn away from this course of disgrace and appeasement.