Winston Churchill was referring to the Eastern bloc armaments
as the iron curtain not the separating wall which came later and
was much less threatening. Indeed the wall was erected for a
different purpose than the armaments were deployed. The Eastern
bloc feared it was to be attacked by the Western bloc, and it probably
was not wrong in so far as Churchill's intentions were to do just that
but he was thrown out of office by people who did not share his
desire to reenact the British hegemony. Winston was ahead of his
time with respect to the American agenda today to reenact what
Churchill's Britain lacked the iron and steel to do but which he
endeavored in his iron curtain speech to convince the American
audience to support. He succeeded in starting the cold war, or
at least defining it in such a way that multiple nations squandered
their wealth building and maintaining standing armies when there
was no true war to fight. A terrible legacy from which the US and
to a lesser extent the UK may never recover due to an addictive
lust for conquest. Churchill like several (chicken) warhawks today
was an armchair general forever dreaming of overcoming personal
insecurities with magical, boyish, global adventures in which
thousands of toy soldiers die valiantly in service to the narcissistic
leader. Churchill, like George W., Cheney, Wolfowitz, the intelligence
cartel, adore games of the wealthy, the elite, those who float above
the fray. Aesthetes repulsed by ethicists.
Aesthetes forever rationalize their savage depredations as good for
the contemptible populace. Like PR professionals forever act
amazed that consumers believe the stuff they're fed -- yuk, yuk.
--
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