Our Favorite Murderer

Dinesh D'Souza recently wrote a book entitled "The Roots of Obama's Rage". It's actually slightly more level-headed and interesting than one might suppose by virtue of the title, but there was one anecdote about Winston Churchill that says some good things about Obama and some awful things about most of the rest of us.

We all know something about the Churchill cult in this culture, which is profoundly repulsive to myself and to anyone else with even a passing knowledge of history. Churchill is praised in this nation under the apparent assumption that he was born on September 1, 1939.

In other words, most of us associate Churchill only with his role in World War II. That role in itself is full of treachery and war crimes as well as inspiration and fortitude. But let's just skip World War II. Let's just assume (falsely) that Churchill was "the good guy".

What D'Souza lambastes Obama for is removing a bust of Churchill from the White House. Gasp! Why does Obama hate England?? For the same reason most of us should hate England: an accurate knowledge of their conduct over the past couple centuries.

Obama's father was a Kenyan, which means that Obama knows full well of Churchill's role in starving and killing his ancestors. I, on the other hand, am German and Irish, which means....oh, wait...I guess it means the same thing.

Churchill was a racist and imperialist of the fullest and crudest sense, clinging to these convictions even as he waged a war for "freedom" against the racist and imperialist Nazis. Indeed, even after that war for "freedom" Churchill refused freedom to Indians, Kenyans, Irishmen, or anyone else.

Every six months or so, I learn something new about Churchill that makes his true identity even more clear, and even more clearly repulsive. I've reached the point by now where I applaud Obama for removing his bust from the White House, just as I would applaud him for removing a bust of Tojo or Hitler.

Here's my latest discovery. World War II can only be accurately understood as a continuation of World War I. The question of how World War II began, therefore, must correctly be phrased "How did World War I begin?"

The story of World War I is overlooked in our culture because it is far harder to spin it into a "good" or "necessary" war.

Churchill was in charge of the English navy at that time, and as such he had 2 responsibilities: blockading Germany and getting America to jump in against Germany.

When one wonders what Germany was so angry about, this should shed a little light on it: Winston Churchill directed his navy to deny an entire nation of food. Germany was intentionally starved. Millions died.

In addition to starving a whole nation, Churchill was occupied with pulling our nation into the war. He did this by seeking to get Americans killed by Germany submarines. He gave orders for civilian ships carrying American passengers to be armed. This, he hoped, would cause Germany to fire on those ships, thereby killing Americans.

He also urged "civilian" ships to carry weapons in their holds, again giving Germany cause to fire on them. The more Americans on these ships, the better (for Churchill). The Lusitania is a case in point. A British passenger ship, Churchill ordered the ship to carry tons of weapons both on and below its decks.

No American passengers were told that the ship had been transformed into a warship. No American passengers were told that Churchill knew of German plans to sink this very ship. No, to Churchill, the death of American civilians was a desired outcome. And he got the outcome he sought.

It's hard to think back to a time when Americans did not reflexively side against the British. But such a time did exist. It began, obviously, with the Revolution. It did not end until World War I. And the person who convinced us that England was our friend was the same person who was intentionally getting American civilians killed so that we would stumble into his war.

Unfortunately, we obliged him. But we should not fool ourselves. The only reason we value Churchill's role in World War II is that he was our ally. But so was Stalin. And there is no bust of Stalin in the White House.

In fact, if you asked the average American whether it was Churchill or Stalin who intentionally let American innocents be killed in order to force the country into an unwanted war, we all know what the answer would be. And now we know that answer would be wrong.