Storm Clouds Gathering Again

There are a number of columns lamenting the feeble response of the British to the Iranian seizure of its sailors and marines.

Mark Steyn, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times, mirrors V.D. Hanson's view that the European Union and The United Nations are toothless institutions, which, having failed to learn the lesson of the futility of appeasement, are doomed to face the ever-increasing demands of the "appeased". Investors Business Daily titled its editorial on the subject, Rue Britannia and wondered "if the British Lion now keeps its teeth in a jar?".

The IBD editorial closed with a striking quote from Winston Churchill, which was originally uttered 70 years ago to chastise those who would not take a firm stand against a growing threat to Western Democracy, but which is chillingly timely in light of similar dithering by many in Europe and the U.S. in the face of the Islamist threat to the West:

"If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be 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 small 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."

The West waited until the eleventh hour to confront the evils of fascism and paid the price in blood. We can only hope that we will not now shrink from strongly opposing radical Islam.