Asking ... Begging for War!

The creation of the German air power was long and carefully prepared in secret. (...) Airpower is the most difficult of all forms of military force to measure (...) The air, and air alone, offered Hitler the chance of a short cut (...)

The pacifism of the Labour and Liberal Paries was not affected even by the grave event of the German withdrawal from the League of Nations. Both continued in the name of peace to urge British disarmament, and anyone who differed was called a 'warmonger' and 'scaremonger'. It appeared that their feeling was endorsed by the people, who of course did not understand what was unfolding.

At a by-election (...) a wave of pacifist emotion increased the Socialist vote by 9,000, and the Conservative vote fell by over 10,000. The successful candidate said after the poll that "British people demand ... that the British Government shall give a lead to the whole world by initiating immediately a policy of general disarmament". Mr Lansbury, then Leader of the Labour Party, said that all nations must "disarm to the level of Germany as a preliminary to total disarmament." (...)

In November came the Reichstag election, at which no candidates except those endorsed by Hitler were tolerated, and the Nazis obtained ninety-five percent of the votes polled.

It would be wrong (...) of the British Government not to remember the passionate desire for peace which animated the uninformed, misinformed majority of the British people, and seemed to threaten with political extinction any party or politician who dared to take any other line. (...) This is no excuse for political leaders who fall short of their duty. It was much better (...) to be turned out of office than to imperil the nation. (...)

I said in the House of Commons: "(...) We are half the strength of France (...) Germany is arming fast and no one is going to stop her (...) no one proposes a preventive war to stop Germany breaking the Treaty of Versailles. She is going to arm; she is doing it; she has been doing it (...)"

Nevertheless, when on July 20 the Government brought forward the belated and inadequate proposals for strengthening the RAF by 41 squadrons, or about 820 machines, only to be completed in five years [sic], the Labour Party, supported by the Liberals, moved a vote of censure upon them (...) Mr Atlee (...) said: "We deny the need for increased air armaments ... We deny the proposition that an increased RAF will make for the peace of the world and we reject altogether the claim to parity (with Germany) (...)"

When we remember that this was language used after careful deliberation by the responsible heads of parties, the danger of our country becomes apparent (...) we could have preserved the air strength (...) maintained quantitative parity (...) and Hitler's career of violence might have been nipped in the bud without the loss of a single life (...)

Excerpt from "Memoirs of the Second World War", by Winston S. Churchill;
Chapter 6: "Air Parity Lost, 1934-1935"

NewsMax.com: "Iran Seeks Confrontation in Gulf", by Kenneth R. Timmerman

The near-miss confrontation between Iranian speedboats and a U.S. naval convoy in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday was a clear provocation by Iran, aimed at testing the reaction time of U.S. Navy commanders and the political will of the United States, sources within the Iranian military tell Newsmax. The U.S. failed the test, because no shots were fired, the Iranians said.

As a result, the U.S. Navy can expect similar provocations in the future, as Iran seeks to determine what red lines the U.S. Navy is willing to draw in the narrow sea lanes. “If the U.S. Navy had shown strength and directly opened fire, the Revolutionary Guards high command would understand that they can gain nothing in military hostilities with the United States,” Newsmax sources within the Iranian military said.

Instead, this latest incident has only fueled the aggressiveness of Iran’s leaders, who see that the United States has now followed Britain, which backed down after a group of British Marines was taken hostage in international waters by Revolutionary Guards patrol boats last spring.

Dramatic video footage released yesterday by the U.S. Navy showed five Iranian speedboats racing across the wake of a U.S. Navy convoy in the narrow international shipping lanes of the Persian Gulf on Sunday. (...)

But Iranian sources say that the provocation was part of a strategic plan, which Newsmax first revealed last spring, to test U.S. reactions in preparation of a full-scale confrontation with the United States that would involve naval and missile forces in the Persian, and terrorist surrogates around the world.

Last year, the Iranians flew drones close to U.S. aircraft carriers patrolling in the Persian Gulf and showed the footage on state-owned television. “This was their way of saying, ‘look how close we can get to you,’ said Sardar Haddad, an Iranian activist with close ties to Iranian intelligence and military circles. (...)

The timing of the Iranian probe clearly was aimed at sending a signal to the United States and to America’s friends on the Arab side of the Persian Gulf (...) >>>