Busted: The Churchill Flap (Obama sends W. Churchill's bust BACK to England)

Newsweek ^ | 2/21/09 | Katie Connolly

[scottdeus12]

Has America's even- tempered new president already ruffled feathers in the land that spawned Borat and Benny Hill? That's certainly how the spiky British press responded after the White House sent back to the British Embassy a bust of Sir Winston Churchill that had occupied a cherished spot in President Bush's Oval Office. Intended as a symbol of transatlantic solidarity, the bust was a loaner from former British prime minister Tony Blair following the September 11 attacks. A bust of Abraham Lincoln—Obama's historical hero—now sits in its place. A White House spokesperson says the Churchill bust was removed before Obama's inauguration as part of the usual changeover operations, adding that every president puts his own stamp on the Oval Office.

[Deb]

You’re an ass. In his younger days Churchill fought and was nearly killed in Africa. Read a book.

[Mr. Lucky]

I suspect that “we” Americans were too young, or not even yet born, to have won the War. That you deny Churchill’s role doesn’t say a bunch for you credentials, Professor.

[visualops]

The thing is, it shows a lack of thought. The Obama administration are tone-deaf adolescents.
What he needed to do was ASK the current PM if they wanted it back, or if they minded we keep it on display somewhere.
Instead what he did was say, here’s your national hero, we don’t have a spot for him anymore.

[Right Wing Assault]

Hmm. Obie and his lefties were fussed because the Iraq war was turning our allies against us, supposedly.

What better way to turn an ally against us than by insulting one of their great men? Who needs a war to offend?

[ETL]

RE: "W. Churchill"

Maybe he'll replace it with a bust of that 'other' W. Churchill...

August, 2003: Ward Churchill Caught On Tape Advocating Terrorism [vs Fellow Americans]

Audio link at Michell Malkin's website (included below)

Question from audience:
You mentioned a little bit ago, "Why did it take a bunch of Arabs to do what you all should have done a long time ago," that's my question.

Churchill: I'm gonna repeat that, tell me if I got that right: Why shouldn't we do something and how do you you move so they don't see you coming.

As to the first part, not a reason in the world that I could see. I can't find a single reason that you shouldn't in a principled way —there may be some practical considerations, such as do you know how (laughter from audience)

—you know, often these things are processes. It's not just an impulse. And certainly it's not just an event.

And the simple answer, although it probably should be more complicated, but I'm not being flip and giving the simple answer, is:
You carry the weapon. That's how they don't see it coming. You're the one...

They talk about "color blind or blind to your color." You said it yourself.

You don't send the Black Liberation Army into Wall Street to conduct an action.

You don't send the American Indian Movement into downtown Seattle to conduct an action.

Who do you send? You. Your beard shaved, your hair cut close, and wearing a banker's suit.

There's probably a whole lot more to it, you know that. But there's where you start. .."

more...

Audio link at:
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/001588.htm
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"God D*** America, U.S. to Blame for 9/11"
--Rev Dr. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's pastor for twenty years

"America’s chickens... are coming home... to ROOST!"

The Real Story Behind Rev. Wright's Controversial Black Liberation Theology Doctrine
Monday , May 5, 2008
FoxNews/Hannity's America
[special Friday night edition--original airdate May 2, 2008]

(some key excerpts)

["(Jose) Diaz-Balart is the son of Rafael Diaz-Balart y Guitierrez (a former Cuban politician). He has three bothers, Rafael Diaz-Balart (a banker), Mario Diaz-Balart (a US Congressman) and Lincoln Diaz-Balart (also a US Congressman). His aunt, Mirta Diaz-Balart, was Fidel Castro's first wife."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jose_Diaz-Balart]

JOSE DIAZ-BALART, TELEMUNDO NETWORK: "Liberation theology in Nicaragua in the mid-1980's was a pro-Sandinista, pro-Marxist, anti-U.S., anti-Catholic Church movement. That's it. No ifs, ands, or buts. His church apparently supported, in the mid-'80s in Nicaragua, groups that supported the Sandinista dictatorships and that were opposed to the Contras whose reason for being was calling for elections. That's all I know. I was there.

I saw the churches in Nicaragua that he spoke of, and the churches were churches that talked about the need for violent revolution and I remember clearly one of the major churches in Managua where the Jesus Christ on the altar was not Jesus Christ, he was a Sandinista soldier, and the priests talked about the corruption of the West, talked about the need for revolution everywhere, and talked about 'the evil empire' which was the United States of America."

REV. BOB SCHENCK, NATIONAL CLERGY COUNCIL: "it's based in Marxism. At the core of his [Wright's] theology is really an anti-Christian understanding of God, and as part of a long history of individuals who actually advocate using violence in overthrowing those they perceive to be oppressing them, even acts of murder have been defended by followers of liberation theology. That's very, very dangerous."

SCHENCK: "I was actually the only person escorted to Dr. Wright. He asked to see me, and I simply welcomed him to Washington, and then I said Dr. Wright, I want to bring you a warning: your embrace of Marxist liberation theology. It is contrary to the Gospel, and you need, sir, to abandon it. And at that he dropped the handshake and made it clear that he was not in the mood to dialogue on that point."

Source: The Real Story Behind Rev. Wright's Controversial Black Liberation Theology Doctrine:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354158,00.html
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"Their founding document [the Weather Underground's] called for the establishment of a "white fighting force" to be allied with the "Black Liberation Movement" and other "anti-colonial" movements[1] to achieve "the destruction of US imperialism and the achievement of a classless world: world communism."..."-Berger, Dan (2006). Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity. AK Press, 95.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weatherman_Underground#cite_ref-Berger_0-0

Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity (Paperback) by Dan Berger
http://www.amazon.com/Outlaws-America-Underground-Politics-Solidarity/dp/1904859410
_______________________________________________________

From the New York Times, August 24, 2003

"they [the Weather Underground] employed revolutionary jargon, advocated armed struggle and black liberation and began bombing buildings, taking responsibility for at least 20 attacks. Estimates of their number ranged at times from several dozen to several hundred."

Article: Quieter Lives for 60's Militants, but Intensity of Beliefs Hasn't Faded
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F04E4DE1539F937A1575BC0A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2
_______________________________________________________

"This is a guy [Bill Ayers] who lives in my neighborhood, who's a professor of English..."

[Vanders9]

Churchill wasnt completely responsible for the Gallipoli debacle. Besides, I’m quite sure Haig and Kitchener could have gotten all those troops killed them if they’d been sent to the western front instead.

There is a tendency for modern historians to try and apportion blame for WWI more evenly, levelling accusations at Britain and/or France for contributing to the crisis by their arrogant imperialism and/or colonialism. Unfortunately, this doesn’t really wash. If you want a reason for the onset of WWI you really dont have to look much further than a very large German army invading Belgium and northern France. WWI could have been prevented, but not once nations start invading each other.

Abraham Lincoln wanted to abolish slavery, not start a civil war. The decision to fight over that issue was the South’s, or more specifically the decision of the great plantation owners who dominated southern politics. There were genuine grievances held in the South against the North, but none of them, in and of themselves, would have pushed the South into rebellion. The absence of conflict in Europe is largely down to there not being much economic benefit in slavery by then.

[Professor_Leonide]

Sorry guys, no offense intended to Churchill, but we won that war... The Brits lost their empire.

Damn glad we won, but any British gentleman would have been just as sufficient as Prime Minister.

It was the American soldier carrying his M1 Garand rifle that saved Western Civilization.

If anyone wants a bust on their mantle, get a bronze statue of the American Soldier because it’s the soldier who is required to sacrifice his personal life and sometimes his life so generations later a bunch of us can worship some stuffed shirt?

Does the American Soldier with his M1 Garand deserve more? You bet.

[jveritas]

He could have simply added The Lincoln bust and kept the Churchill bust.

[Puddleglum]

The idea of a bust is very unsettling, let’s please return to being a nation of laws and not a nation of celebrity-men who engaged in brutal bloody warfare, often for the fun of it.

Are you serious? It's not either/or.

[jveritas]

He could have simply added The Lincoln bust and kept the Churchill bust.

[Professor_Leonide]

Your post was informative, even though I’m already aware of your position and the facts contained therein.

The hero of WWI is the American doughboy carrying his 1903 Springfield Rifle (30-06). We lost 75,000 hero’s in WWI - they’re the ones who deserve to be remembered fondly.

[KC_Conspirator]

What a fricking child.

[Corin Stormhands]

Instead what he did was say, here’s your national hero, we don’t have a spot for him anymore.

You don't know that HE said that. The article says it was sent back before the Inauguration. There's no clear indication that Obama knew anything other than wanting to display the bust of Lincoln rather than Churchill.

Perhaps it could've been handled better, and a little more diplomatically. But really, I don't think it's much of an issue.

[Blood of Tyrants]

A man who divided the nation into a civil war is Obama’s hero.

[Mr. Lucky]

Neville Chamberlain was more a gentleman than Winston Churchill.

Had the Americans not been convinced, through the sheer force of Churchill's personality, to launch their 1st major offensive in North Africa, rather than attempting to invade Europe directly, they would have been slaughtered.

[Vanders9]

A long standing argument.

I personally think that it is highly unlikely that the US could have stayed out of WW2 for much longer anyway. The only real chance was if the Japanese had not attacked pearl harbor. Therefore, what you are really asking is could the combined forces of the British Empire (as it was then) and the USSR (as it was then) together have defeated Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and the various minor Axis powers.

No one will ever know of course. I personally (and I am a Brit so I am no doubt biased) think that in the end we would have ground them down. It would have been more difficult and it certainly would have taken longer, and I can’t imagine what kind of world we would be living in now - probably the iron curtain would still be up and somewhere west of Paris. But if you think about it, the Nazis had pretty much all of western europe in thrall - eventually all those Poles and Greeks and Frenchmen and Danes and Norweigans and Belgians and Dutch are going to rise up against them eventually. You can’t keep all of them under the thumb forever. The only real problem I can see is if the Nazis had managed to develop the atom bomb first, which they might have if the US and Britain weren’t pooling their scientific knowledge.

[Professor_Leonide]

That’s overdoing it... Sheer force of Churchill’s personality... Stalin probably had more of FDR’s ear than Churchill.

[Dionysius]

Au contraire. He could run a Dairy Queen — into the ground!

[Dionysius]

I’m sure Winston, from on high, is most pleased about this.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

It takes a while to get that little swirl on the tip just right.