Churchill had to use a form of military math back in his time.
On July 3rd, 1940,
Churchill ordered the attack on the French Vichy navy in the naval base of Mers
El Kebir, in northern Algeria (Algeria was a French dependency). Originally,
the French were allies of the Brits in the war against Germany, but then France
capitulated to the Germans. The Germans divided France in two: the top half was
governed by the Germans; the bottom half by the French in their new base in the
town of Vichy. Thus, ‘Vichy France’. The Vichy government had the Nazis as
their overseers. The Vichy were allowed to have their own military, as long as
they did not provoke the Nazis. The biggest, strongest part of that military
was the Vichy (former French) navy. It was very powerful, so much so that it could
possibly have held of any German naval threat. By contrast, not all the French
had capitulated. There was the Free French led by General De Gaul, who was based
at that time in the UK and was the de facto leader of the French Resistance.
What was
Churchill to do? Here was this giant, powerful navy that could be taken over by
the Nazis. Hitler was not a man of his word! Britain appealed to Vichy France to let their
navy join them in the war. They did not. Due to this, Churchill gave them simple
choices: sail off to the French Caribbean, or sink your fleet, or we will sink it
for you. The French did not concede. So, the Brits sank the French fleet of
Mers El Kebir.
The math was straightforward
for Churchill:
Very
powerful French navy
+
Lying Hitler and
compromised Vichy government
Trump, too, used
similar math recently.
He ordered the bombing
of the nuclear plants of Iran. Why? Because there was clear evidence that they
were in the process of making nuclear bombs. It was the speed that the Iranians
were going about their business that was scaring both the Israelis and the
Trump administration. The Iranians were in the position to, in theory at least,
produce 9 nuclear weapons within two to three days. There was also the fact
that Iran had supported Hamas in its attack on Israel, and had made many
threats over the years against the ‘Great Satan’, the United States.
Let’s look at Trump’s
math:
Iran at warp speed enrichening
uranium to nuclear bomb levels
+
Iran’s hatred
of Israel and US
It is easy for
critics to pick apart both Trump and Churchill for striking an ‘enemy’ that had
not actually done the evil others were projecting onto them. But that’s why we
call such attacks ‘preemptive strikes’, so that they do stop an evil from
happening. The Free French leader De Gaulle, although bewailing the tragedy of Mers
El Kebir, concluded about the ships, “I therefore have no hesitation in saying
that they are better destroyed" (“Je le dis sans ambages, il vaut mieux
qu’ils aient été détruits.”) In 1956, De Gaulle reopened the prestigious national
award of the Order of the Liberation, having closed it down in 1946. The
recipient? Winston Churchill. The French nation rejoiced!
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