Sobering thought for 2010 (From The Northern Echo)

Sobering thought for 2010

10:22am Tuesday 29th December 2009 in

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AS the year 1939 faded and the tumultuous year 1940 loomed in the winter darkness, King George VI read a poem by Minnie Haskins over the radio to the nation.

The King introduced the poem by saying: “I feel that we may all find a message of encouragement in the lines which, in my closing words, I would like to say to you.” He then read the little-known, but astonishingly evocative poem: “I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year, ‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’ And he replied, ‘Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way. May that Almighty hand guide and uphold us all’.”

The year 1939 had seen the outbreak of the Second World War and 1940 would see the fall of France, the evacuation of the British Army from Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain and the beginning of the Blitz. So the King’s words were not empty rhetoric: our country really was entering the darkness.

I feel we could do with similar encouragement as we plunge into 2010. We, too, are threatened by war – a war which could break out anytime, anywhere, without warning: in the tube station, the shopping arcade or the city centre hotel and we need to nerve ourselves not to falter in our resistance.

If I could dare hope for things in the New Year, I would start by hoping for a lessening of the terrorist threat. Alas, this is unlikely.

For 2010 will probably be the year when confrontation with a nuclear-armed Iran comes to a head. That regime’s President Ahmadinejad has many times threatened to wipe Israel off the map and to wage war against “the great Satan” and “the little Satan” – that’s the US and us. It now looks as if he has the nuclear weapons and the rockets to attempt this aggression.

Unfortunately, the response of the West is pathetically weak. The Western nations cannot even agree upon a programme of economic sanctions against Iran, let alone any military action.

President Barack Obama is like the parent or teacher who keeps telling the naughty child that, if he doesn’t behave, then he’ll be punished. But the hand of punishment is forever stayed and so the misconduct continues.

History shows that it is weak leaders who take us into wars and Obama dithers and delays so that he has become a laughing stock throughout the Islamic Republic of Iran.

But there is a strong likelihood that where the US and the UN are paralysed by lack of will, others will take matters into their own hands. I refer to Israel. When threatened with utter destruction, as Israel has been threatened, and when the enemy is on the threshold of having the means to achieve its ends, no nation would sit back and do nothing.

Suppose France were our enemy and had threatened time and again to wipe us off the map. Further suppose that the French had stockpiled nuclear bombs and rockets in northern France, all pointing in our direction – well, of course, the British government would order a military response. Does anyone imagine Israel will continue to do nothing for very much longer?

This is the dark at the gate of the year. Beside it, the world economic crisis is a sideshow.

The only realistically useful advice is that given by King George at the end of 1939.