Mastodawn

In 1919 someone famous said this:

“I cannot understand this squeamishness about the use of gas. I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes”

He was the government minister for war, and he was talking about the Middle East (Kurds and Afghans).

It was Winston Churchill. Not much has changed. The disregard for human life continues.

#IranWar

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Charlie Stross Mar 20

@dave @quixoticgeek

Yeah, what many anglophones today don't seem to realize is that Winston was a monstrous asshole.

For perspective, consider that it took fricken' HITLER to make him look good.

(In his defense: he was born in 1874 and as an officer in the British Army rode in cavalry charges against Pashtuns in what is now Pakistan: classic Victorian imperial soldiering. By the 20th century he was already a living fossil.)

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Steve Woods Mar 20

@cstross @dave @quixoticgeek In WW1 Churchill has the main cheerleader for the disastrous Gallipoli campaign, which saw my grandfather sent abroad for the first and only time in his life. He survived, unlike thousands of others.

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Charlie Stross Mar 20

@wood5y @dave @quixoticgeek Did you notice what Churchill did in the wake of Gallipoli? (Took full responsibility, resigned, joined the army, and was sent to the western front.)

Yes, it was a fuck-up: but can you see a modern politician doing that?

(Also: if Gallipoli had worked—I blame the failure on the Royal Navy leadership in the theatre—it would have shortened the war by two years and there'd have been no Russian revolution, Brest-Litovsk, or Kaiserslacht. Millions fewer dead.)

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Steve Woods Mar 20

@cstross @dave @quixoticgeek Another contributory factor to the failure of Gallipoli was the maps being used by the Brits, which were 50 years out of date.

Added to that was the dismissive racist attitude towards the Turks, who proved far more determined as soldiers than had been predicted.

No, I couldn't imagine a similar show of contrition from any modern politician.

The last to exhibit such behaviour. was Profumo.

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Charlie Stross

@wood5y @dave @quixoticgeek As I keep saying, Churchill was a creature of another age. Vile, bigoted, reprehensible—all these things are true: but he was also erratically brilliant and took responsibility for his blunders. (If they cost *British* lives. Imperial subjects and bloody foreigners could go hang, for all he cared.)