Indispensable Alliance

National Review ^ | April 7, 2008 | John Derbyshire

[moderatewolverine]

At the end of The Pickwick Papers, Samuel Pickwick decides to retire. He had founded the Pickwick Club in order to mix “with different varieties and shades of human character … Nearly the whole of my previous life having been devoted to business and the pursuit of wealth.” His curiosity satisfied at last, he declares the club dissolved. The Pickwick Club then ceases to exist.

This is an unusual turn of events in human affairs. Clubs, societies, organizations, leagues, and alliances, once born, rarely die other than by violence. An uncle of mine was a pillar of a club called Toc H, founded on the Western Front during WWI for the wholesome relief and spiritual comfort of trench-weary Tommies. I am not very surprised to find Toc H still going strong, though it is extremely unlikely that any of their intended beneficiaries is still alive. (I am even less surprised to see that it seems to have succumbed to O’Sullivan’s Law that “all organizations that are not actually right-wing will over time become left-wing.”) All over the world, in odd corners, you find the adherents of long-dead collective enthusiasms keeping the flame of fellowship alive. Is the Rudolph Valentino Fan Club still with us? Apparently it is.

[A Balrog of Morgoth]

Pretty good points, though I’d opine that keeping some of the bases we have in Europe makes good sense purely for logistic reasons, i.e. Sigonella, Rota and Ramstein.