The Few Who Saved Civilization. 
Spoke Sunday 25 with Michael Korda, author "With Wings Like Eagles: A History of the Battle of Britain," re the spectacularly fragile moment in the summer of 1940 when the British
Fight Command, led by air Marshal Sir Hugh "Stuffy" Dowding, was the only obstacle to a German invasion of England and the fall of all Europe to the Nazi war machine. Michael Korda tells the story, at the height of the battle in mid August, a blue sky and sunny day in England, hundreds of British and German fighter planes and German bombers weaved and dived overhead while the public went about their lives without much comment. There was little noise, and the little you could see from the ground were contrails ad the occasional parachutist. My favorite moment in this fierce story of mass murder by the bombers and heroism by the fighter pilots was when a British pilot floated to ground on a small golf course. The man was wounded slightly, had blood of his torn shirt, and was picked up and driven to the club bar and offered a drink while they called for an ambulance. Two other gentlemen at the bar were not aware of the drama. One leaned over and said to his mate, "I say, bit scruffy, isn't he. Do you think he's a member?" Michael Korda told me this is the best representation he can find of what it was to be English, a version of parochial wit and stoical confidence in the face of a fight to the death.
The Shape of Things to Come.
The strangest revelation in the book is that Michael Korda's famous show biz family, his
uncle Alexander Korda and his father Michael Korda, were friends with the wonderful H.G. Wells. The Kordas long wanted to do a Wells book into a movie, and in 1936 they produced "The Shape of Things to Come," a tale that opens with a wave of bombers destroying London in a single night's raid. A forty year war of desperate ruin follows, marked by famine and a pestilence known as "the Wandering Sickness." What is striking is that this movie influenced the war planning of the men who led two countries into the World War -- Stanley Baldwin, Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill for the British; and Adolf Hitler and Herman Goering for the Germans. They all had an exaggerated opinion of the bimber, or, as Stanley Baldiwn put it: "The bomber always gets through." It was not true. And it was Dowding's peculiar genius to imagine the way to stop the bomber was the Hurricane, the Spitfire, radar, telephone based controllers, and a grid system of fighter squadrons that pecked at the German attackers instead of confronting them in a massive assault. Fighter Command wore down the Germans until a frustrated Hitler called off Sea Lion in September 1940. England was saved by the lateness of the calendar year and the bad weather. The Germans then turned to night bombing of London and other cities, the Blitz, but that was not invasion. The fighter plane had defeated the bomber, a fact never imagined in the Korda's film -- and apparently never imagined by anyone by Hugh Dowding, the man who, along with the pilots, saved England to fight on. And gave the turn of phrase to Churchill that we remember today: "Never have so many owed so much to so few."
Once upon a time, we could pummel each other all we wanted. Deck chairs were invented for such wars. The advent of atomic weapons changed all that. It froze our lust for fighting. Hiroshima (and Nagasaki) was just a test. We didn't really know what would happen. Now we know. Fortunately, the experiment also served to end one of our great wars. ...and for a long time, all was quiet.
We still fight wars but, today, they're proxy wars involving countries that don't yet have the big bang. But the cat's out of the bag. More and more nations are coming on line in our now nuclear world. Some of these, we fear, have not yet factored in the true consequences of such a fight - or don't care.
Our enemies know we won't fight them directly; that using our proxy allies is as far as we will ever go. Their proxy allies are therefore free to do pretty much what they want. We represent the bombers crippled by bad weather in the story above; they are the Hurricanes and Spitfires (and suicide bombers), pecking away at battleship America. If we are to be defeated, it will be without a fight.
That's why Israel's recent attack on Gaza is so invigorating. Like water long held back, bursting forth from the dam, is our lust for war. I'm that way and I assume most other people are but pretend not to be, given that we all have more or less identical DNA.
I'm a huge fan of Sir Winston. When the Soviets signed a peace agreement with Mr. Hitler, and American Housewives chose to ignore evil in order to keep "our boys home", Winston Churchill confronted and fought the worst evil in modern History.
Winston never won a Nobel Peace prize, yet he singlehandedly saved civilization, IMHO.
Liberals and Peacniks easily forget true meglomania exists, and fervently believe we can achieve Peace in Our Time.
-Wisdom
So,we have entered into a new era of warfare, cyber warfare economic warfare and electronic warfare sabotaging elctric and power grids. Right now there is economic warfare and the world is choosing sides. Also most of it has been PR blitzes. US trying to show a new face with Obama and as Biden said there will be challenges to Obama.
Saw Putin trying to put on a new face at Bloomberg. Learnt from the Democratic playbook blame all on good old George for Russian aggression. Putin claim natural gas issue with Ukraine was Bush trying to stir up things. Is Putin playing to Russian audience or to US. Similar to Obama on Al-Arabiya where his contiguous comment was similar the AIPAC audience about an undivided Jerusalem. Obama placates theaudience he is speaking to but is merely rheteric.
Putin also justified confiscating Lukoil from Khordkovsky while creating more billioaire oligarchs under his regime. Claims Ukraine government corrupt sees no evil hears no evil.
Let's not forget that 10% of the RAF Hurricanes and Spitfires were manned by Polish fliers. In fact, the 303 Squadron was the Polish Squadron. These Polish pilots are really the few to whom so many owe so much--and these few are forgotten.