Wise Words...
The Arabs� Spring�and Ours
Apr 11, 2011, Vol. 16, No. 29 � By WILLIAM KRISTOL[...]
Here, early in the twenty-first century, the Arabs seem to be rising to the occasion. The question is, will we?
Perhaps. And perhaps especially if we recall the achievements of Winston Churchill, which suggest that fashionable fatalism is too, well, fatalistic.
Churchill wasn�t a waste land type. He was in important respects a Victorian, or a neo-Victorian. On February 7, 1952, speaking to the British nation after the death of King George VI, as Queen Elizabeth II was ascending the throne, Churchill memorably closed his broadcast: �I, whose youth was passed in the august, unchallenged, and tranquil glories of the Victorian era, may well feel a thrill in invoking, once more, the prayer and the anthem �God Save the Queen.� �
Obviously, as Churchill knew well, the august, unchallenged, and tranquil glories of the Victorian era will not return (if they ever really existed). But is it too much to ask that we regain some of that Victorian confidence about the future? We can�t make all right with the world. But we can make some things in the world a little better. It�s certainly worth the effort to improve the Middle East.
And who knows? Helping the Arab Spring through to fruition might contribute to an American Spring, one of renewed pride in our country and confidence in the cause of liberty.
