The Monarchist 1.0
Defending the British Crown Commonwealth and the English-Speaking Peoples
[+] HONOURING OUR PATRON, SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL, VICTOR OF THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING PEOPLES
[+] HONOURING OUR QUEEN, ELIZABETH THE SECOND, ON THE 80TH YEAR OF HER BIRTH (1926 - 2006)
[+] HONOURING OUR KING, SAINT EDWARD THE CONFESSOR, ON THE 1000TH YEAR OF HIS BIRTH (1005 - 2005)
[+] HONOURING OUR HERO, LORD NELSON, ON THE BICENTENNIAL OF THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR (1805 - 2005)
[+] HONOURING OUR SONS, THE QUEEN'S COMMONWEALTH SOLDIERS KILLED IN THE 'WAR ON TERROR'
Chief Warrant Officer Robert Girouard, 46, Royal Canadian Regiment, Nov 27, 2006 (Afstan)
Staff Sergeant Sharron Elliott, 34, Intelligence Corps, Nov 12, 2006 (Iraq)
Private Jacob B. Kovco, 25, Royal Australian Regiment, April 21, 2006
[+] HONOURING OUR VETS ON THE 150TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE VICTORIA CROSS (1856 - 2006)
Sunday, October 29, 2006
The British Empire, 50 years dead
50 years ago today, October 29, 1956, British and French-backed Israel invaded the Egyptian-controlled Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula and made rapid progress towards the Suez Canal. It was the beginning of the Suez Crisis, a response to Nasser's nationalization of the Canal against Western shipping interests. The disunited response - British, French, American and Canadian - turned into a collosal strategic error by the West that emboldened the Soviet Union; put the death knell into two imperial powers that gravely undermined the Nato alliance, of which France later left; fueled pan Arab hostility towards Israel in the Middle East that continues to this day; and gave the embryonic United Nations an active role in international affairs. Eisenhower later admitted, after retiring from office, that it was the biggest foreign policy mistake he made in office. Not only did he feel that the United States weakened two crucial European Cold War allies, but he created in Nasser a man capable of dominating the Arab world.
This blog will of course observe sentimentally the passing of an empire, and sadly upon that day when Menzies of Australia and St. Laurent of Canada rebuked the mother country for Eden's presumption that the Commonwealth was automatically onside with Britain. But that is nothing compared to the embarrassing Canadian myth that considers this the highpoint of our historical national achievement; that we could be good honest brokers in the world with our Noble Prize winning invention, UN Peacekeeping. For what we began to lose after Korea was our country's soul, our values stemming from knowing what was right and wrong, instead of an independent and de facto neutral foreign policy that got us and the world nowheres. The British Empire, for all of its colonial paternalism, at least advanced a good chunk of the unsettled and uncivilized world in its own successful image.
POSTED BY: Beaverbrook AT 1:04 a.m. | LINKS |
50 years ago today, October 29, 1956, British and French-backed Israel invaded the Egyptian-controlled Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula and made rapid progress towards the Suez Canal. It was the beginning of the Suez Crisis, a response to Nasser's nationalization of the Canal against Western shipping interests. The disunited response - British, French, American and Canadian - turned into a collosal strategic error by the West that emboldened the Soviet Union; put the death knell into two imperial powers that gravely undermined the Nato alliance, of which France later left; fueled pan Arab hostility towards Israel in the Middle East that continues to this day; and gave the embryonic United Nations an active role in international affairs. Eisenhower later admitted, after retiring from office, that it was the biggest foreign policy mistake he made in office. Not only did he feel that the United States weakened two crucial European Cold War allies, but he created in Nasser a man capable of dominating the Arab world.This blog will of course observe sentimentally the passing of an empire, and sadly upon that day when Menzies of Australia and St. Laurent of Canada rebuked the mother country for Eden's presumption that the Commonwealth was automatically onside with Britain. But that is nothing compared to the embarrassing Canadian myth that considers this the highpoint of our historical national achievement; that we could be good honest brokers in the world with our Noble Prize winning invention, UN Peacekeeping. For what we began to lose after Korea was our country's soul, our values stemming from knowing what was right and wrong, instead of an independent and de facto neutral foreign policy that got us and the world nowheres. The British Empire, for all of its colonial paternalism, at least advanced a good chunk of the unsettled and uncivilized world in its own successful image.
POSTED BY: Beaverbrook AT 1:04 a.m. | LINKS |
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