Which is what British Premier Chamberlain said. The millions killed in WW1 motivated him to be an anti-war appeaser. Hitler knew this, of course, and used it to his advantage. Result? 50 million people die, had Britain acted early on, it would have been nipped in the bud.
When you've got Hitler types about, better to pay attention to history...it does repeat itself.
It is indeed with a pang of stabbing pain that we see all this in mortal danger. A thousand years has served to form a state; an hour may lay it in dust.
What shall we do? Many people think that the best way to escape war is to dwell upon its horrors and to imprint them vividly upon the minds of the younger generation. They flaunt the grisly photograph before their eyes. They fill their ears with tales of carnage. They dilate upon the ineptitude of generals and admirals. They denounce the crime as insensate folly of human strife. Now, all this teaching ought to be very useful in preventing us from attacking or invading any other country, if anyone outside a madhouse wished to do so, but how would it help us if we were attacked or invaded ourselves that is the question we have to ask.
Would the invaders consent to hear Lord Beaverbrook’s exposition, or listen to the impassioned appeals of Mr. Lloyd George? Would they agree to meet that famous South African, General Smuts, and have their inferiority complex removed in friendly, reasonable debate? I doubt it. I have borne responsibility for the safety of this country in grievous times. I gravely doubt it.
But even if they did, I am not so sure we should convince them, and persuade them to go back quietly home. They might say, it seems to me, “you are rich; we are poor. You seem well fed; we are hungry. You have been victorious; we have been defeated. You have valuable colonies; we have none. You have your navy; where is ours? You have had the past; let us have the future.” Above all, I fear they would say, “you are weak and we are strong.”
-Winston Churchill November 16, 1934
Frankly, I am paying attention. I am quite heavily involved in turning people away from the darkside. I am just weary.
FWIW, i was shopping for a business to make some signs for me. I was in one about an hour ago. The owner was reading Mein Kamp and another book about whether the holcaust actually occurred. My business is going elsewhere.