Mark Steyn: The Queen’s Tears

National Review ^ | 09/17/2001 | Mark Steyn

[borkrules]

But, to be honest, I'm a little rattled: For every high-flying flag, there's someone who wants to make this "tragedy" and "crisis" into the usual masturbatory grief wallow of empty Clintobabble — "healing," "closure," and all the other guff.

I'm a little rattled too. Truth be told, after we wipe our eyes from moving scenes like those described here, we need to maintain a level of steely eyed anger, no, rage, and encourage our leaders to reflect that rage in tangible, earth shaking ways.

Folks, the left reflexivly blames America. They've been silenced by the enormity of the damage inflicted in NYC, but they will regain their voices, soon. If they haven't already. We need to maintain our current posture of readiness to support sustained, military action against these monsters. And we must make sure that the voices of appeasement and self-hatred are denounced and exposed.

That said, God save the Queen.

[headsonpikes]

Yesterday PM in Vancouver the Canucks had an inter-squad game at GM Place.

13,000 fans attended, the usual wild mixture of ethnicities that one finds in big Canadian cities.

Prior to the game,a minute of silence was observed and the "Star-Spangled Banner" was sung.

Thousands of Canadians with emotion-choked voices, struggled through your proud national Song.

While the singing was unsteady, there was not a sour or false note in the respect people paid to America and her heroic people.

Over $130,000 was raised by the Red Cross for aid to NYC.

People in Canada are not stupid; we know which side we're on.

God Bless America!

Still a proud Canadian.

[MARETHLINE]

I love Canada and I love the US OF A TOO. GOD SAVE THE QUEEN! AND GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!

[headsonpikes]

BTTT!

[pollyshy]

Thanks for this post,Pokey.

kayak,lepton - I believe paragraph 7 contains the definitive clarification of the "pity party" comment. Oh, to be able to write like that!

[WIladyconservative]

You are a real man. A man who would not cry in the face of such human carnage is a beast, a hulk of protoplasm. We all need a good national cry, and then Geronimo.

Extremely well said - applause applause applause!!

[Polybius]

A salute to our one true Ally.

God save the Queen and God bless the Brits.

[Polybius]

D*mn computer. Can't tell Mad Ivan from MadIvan.

Post 28 is for you.

[GretchenEE]

And at that same service she also sang "The Battle Hymn Of The Republic," for the second time in her life — the first was at the funeral of her first prime minister, Winston Churchill. On Friday, she fought back tears.

I have always loved The Battle Hymn of the Republic, find it difficult not to cry when singing or hearing it, and after it was sung at the National Cathedral on Friday, I checked out its history. Julia Ward Howe wrote it in 1861 as she watched Union soldiers march off to fight in the War between the States. (She was an ardent abolitionist.) The melody was a "United States campmeeting" tune of that time. The fifth stanza lacks attribution, but Howe wrote the first four. I wish someone would have pointed these facts out to me when I was a child.

[GretchenEE]

But she [QE2] understands something that few other leaders of the West seem to — that today the ultimate guarantor of the peace and liberty of her realms is the United States. If America falls, or is diminished, or retreats in on itself, there is no "free world."

[VOA]

The Queen stands on ceremony and she has a lot of ceremony to stand on.

Anyone who likes Corgis and horses must be basically OK with me.
QEII, considered yourself invited to drop by my place anytime for some humble American fare.
But I'll apologize in advance for not having a color guard available for the occassion.

[mountaineer]

"We are not at war," said Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel, his nation's signature on that NATO document notwithstanding.

Words cannot express how furiously angry I am at Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Norway. Let's destroy all but one of bin Laden's suicide bombers, and then let him take his pick of highly populated Belgian, French, German, Italian or Norwegian landmarks into which to fly a fully-fueled plane.

[VOA]

I am not a man who cries easily, I NEVER cry, but last week,
I cried more then I ever have in my entire life.

Hopefully, someday I will have your level of ego-strength.
Until then, I'll simply deny any rumors circulating that I was doing the same thing.
And getting some weird chills hearing the Cold Stream Guards and Old St. Paul's
yielding the tones of our national anthem.

[VOA]

Words cannot express how furiously angry I am at Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Norway.

Given the conduct of England during WWI, WWII, and as our ally in other conflicts,
all I can say is that when "Archie Bunker" said that "England's an f@g country",
he was simply mistaken about which side of the Channel he was referring to.

[JMJ333]

Favorite columnist bump.

This really puts in perspective the struggle we are facing. It is good against evil in the sense that every effort will be made to undermine those who seek justice for this despicable act. We are capable, I believe, of going this alone, but I'm also glad to have the British on our side.

[kayak]

Yes, he did word that rather well, didn't he? ..... LOL! He truly "hits the Mark!"

[gcruse]

 We are capable, I believe, of going this alone,
but I'm also glad to have the British on our side.

And the Israelis.  If anybody knows where the
bodies are buried, they do, having buried a
few of them themselves.

As for  the suddenly patriotic Muslims residing
in the USA, let's see how quickly they line
up at the doors of the CIA as volunteers to
infiltrate and bring down the terrorist network.
Can you say, "Cold front moves into Hell?"

[lepton]

Except for the past 8 years (of WJC), it was always hard to credibly impugn our motives in matters of world affairs. We believe in freedom and representative government, laws and individual rights.

It's been rather amazing watching the liberals on television condemn the U.S. for Clinton's actions (But of course only a rare few will specify that it was him).

[July 4th]

I just started law school a few weeks ago. Many of the cases we've been reading are British, rather than American. Many of the precedents in our nation's judicial system were taken directly from courts in London, Newcastle, and York. Like it or not, Britain is the foundation of what we started here in America. For that reason, we must always see to it that our relationship is the tightest between any two nations on earth. God save the Queen, and God bless our President.