Tag: Sibylline books

Korea, an old Conundrum, and Mr. Churchill’s Wisdom

Korea, an old Conundrum, and Mr. Churchill’s Wisdom

Korea was a prob­lem in 1952—as it is today. “Is the Prime Min­is­ter aware of the deep con­cern felt by the peo­ple of this coun­try at the whole ques­tion of the Kore­an con­flict?” an oppo­si­tion Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment asked the-then Mr. Churchill.

“I am ful­ly aware of the deep con­cern felt by the hon­or­able mem­ber in many mat­ters above his com­pre­hen­sion,” Churchill quipped. Which avoid­ed respond­ing to an unan­swer­able question.

Self-Preservation’s Jarring Gong

How do you answer the Kore­an ques­tion? There are no good choic­es. The Sino-Russ­ian pro­pos­al for the U.S. to aban­don joint mil­i­tary exer­cis­es in exchange for anoth­er promise by the North to stop build­ing mis­siles and test­ing nukes is a non-starter.…

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9/11/12: Ambassador Murdered, Consulate Burned

9/11/12: Ambassador Murdered, Consulate Burned

Over the last forty-eight hours I have been asked for the same two Churchill quo­ta­tions by sev­er­al per­sons in the news media or in pol­i­tics. The quo­ta­tions are in my book, Churchill By Him­self, new­ly pub­lished as Churchill in His Own Words:

“Lead­er­ship” chap­ter, page 490, “Iner­tia”:

When the sit­u­a­tion was man­age­able it was neglect­ed, and now that it is thor­ough­ly out of hand we apply too late the reme­dies which then might have effect­ed a cure. There is noth­ing new in the sto­ry. It is as old as the  Sibylline books. It falls into that long, dis­mal cat­a­logue of the fruit­less­ness of expe­ri­ence and the con­firmed unteach­a­bil­i­ty of mankind.…

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