The interesting question now is: Will Britain do a Spain?

The popular answer at the moment is that they will not. The Brits will

summon up the spirit of the Blitz, face up to the enemy fearlessly, and

soldier on.

I don’t feel at all sure about this, and if I had any money, would bet the

other way.

The Blitz was an entirely different affair. A neighboring power was sending

bombers over to break Britain’s will, so that they could take the country

over and run it as a satellite under puppet rulers, or as a province of

their empire. So the British believed in 1940. The choice was to stand and

fight, or go under. Of course, they stood and fought, fortified by a

strong, proud sense of national and cultural identity.

Now, it may indeed be that the Jihadis think they can break Britain’s will

and take the place over. It may even be that they are right. Problem is,

very few people in Britain believe this. The threat doesn’t seem dire. We

can deduce this — the fact of the threat not seeming dire, whether it

actually is dire or not can be deduced from the fact that extremists have not been interned or expelled, as would be done if

Britons at large felt their nation under threat. They don’t.

To the British, jihadism is just a nuisance — as the IRA was in the

1970s-1990s… and, come to think of it, as Hitler was in 1938. How do the

British instinctively react to this kind of (as they perceive it, rightly or

wrongly) non-nation-threatening nuisance? They appease it. They pay the

Dane-geld.

All the fine words we are hearing about “not giving in to terror” sound very

grand. Yet in fact, the last terror campaign in Britain — the one run by

the IRA — was very successful. Gerry Adams is not dead; he is riding

around in chauffered limousines, paid for by the British taxpayer. The IRA

front party, Sinn Fein, is doing very well in elections all over Ireland,

North and South. Tony Blair sold out to them completely, with the entire

approval of the British public.

If it’s solely up to Tony Blair, Ken Livingstone, and the rest of the Brits

(I’ll make a few exceptions, but they are

not very important), Osama bin Laden will be riding around in a chauffered

limousine ten years from now, and having tea with the Queen. Fortunately

America’s in the fight too… and I very much hope that word “fortunately”

is not just wishful thinking on my part…