Talk:Churchillian

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Edit note

On reflecting on this material I decided that, at least as it stands, it doesn't really meet our standards. In particular:

  • the term is more universal than amongst just American conservatives;
  • the list of dot points covers such as wide class "First Lord of the Admiralty or Prime Minister or in the Cabinet" without distinguishing between his role for each one that it is hard to know whether the claims are fair. (For example, it is possible for a politician to be a member of Cabinet, argue and vote against a policy but still abide by the final Cabinet decision).
  • the list of points is entirely unreferenced.

So at best, the page needs reworking or alternatively may be more appropriate for Wikipedia where a broader range of contributors can help improve the material.--Bob Burton 18:35, 8 August 2009 (EDT)

Then you should edit the page rather than wipe it entirely. You response looks like vandalism.

Wichitonian.

Response to Wichitonian

The onus is on those who add material to make sure that it is properly referenced. It is not my responsibility to find references for material that you or anyone else adds. In the absence of references it is standard procedure in SourceWatch for material to be removed from the article page and posted to the 'discussion' page. Simply reinstating it as you did does not address the fact that it is not properly referenced. So once more I have removed it from the article page. See Help:References for further details on our referencing standards. If you don't wish to reference it to SourceWatch standards I'll delete the page rather than leave it as a blank.--Bob Burton 18:55, 21 August 2009 (EDT)

Well Bob, you know that open source articles are not constructed overnight. For contributors with full time jobs like myself you should anticipate that our articles will evolve toward the ideal rather than achieve it instantaneously. As a freelance writer you may not have worked with others in organizations for some time, but you should know that expressions of impatience and threats such as "I'll delete," tend to alienate rather than inspire. That is especially true when interacting with volunteers. Generally, it is helpful to try to understand how others see the world. I suspect that your impatience and your threat have something to do with your being a freelance journalist. You may have lots of time on your hands and assume that others do as well. Not so. Let me encourage you to take a deep breath, assume good faith on my part, and give me time to add those references.

Wichitonian


Churchillian is a term used to describe leadership that is steadfast in the face of adversity. The term is used because of the admiration that American conservatives mistakenly feel for British politician Winston Churchill. What they fail to understand is that much of the adversity faced by the British and their unfortunate colonial subjects while Winston Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty or Prime Minister or in the Cabinet was of his own devising.

Churchill's principle war crimes and blunders included the following:

  • 1915-1916 Invasion of Gallipoli
  • post-First World War defense of an independent RAF for use in suppressing colonial rebellion:
1919 RAF aerial attacks on Afghan cities of Jalalabad and Kabul
1920 RAF aerial attacks on the Iranian town of Enzoli and civilians in Transjordan
  • 1921 Establishing an independent Iraq that included Kurdistan, thus setting the stage for future war
  • 1922 Churchill White Paper (British White Paper)clarifing the Balfour Declaration, thus setting the stage for the displacement of the Palestinians and future war
  • 1940 Dunkirk Evacuation that resulted in the Fall of France
  • 1942 Directive to RAF Bomber Command, Area Bombardment of German Cities targeting civilian population (900,000 deaths)
  • 1942 Fall of Singapore after incompetent defense
  • 1943 Great Bengal Famine (3.5 million deaths)
  • 1945-1946 Restoration of French and Dutch colonial rule in Southeast Asia, resulting in the Indonesian War of Independence and three decades of war in Indochina.

Sources

  • Christopher Catherwood. 2004. Churchill's Folly: How Winston Churchill Created Modern Iraq. New York: Basic Books.
  • Beau Grosscup. 2006. Strategic Terror: The Politics and Ethics of Aerial Bombardment. London: Zed Press.
  • John Hickman. "Orwellian Rectification," Studies in History. Vol. 24, No. 2 (2008), pp. 235-243.
  • John Mosier. 2003. The Blitzkrieg Myth. New York: HarperCollins
  • Albert Resis. "The Churchill-Stalin Secret "Percentages" Agreement on the Balkans, Moscow, October 1944," The American Historical Review. Vol. 83, No. 2 (1978), pp. 368-387.