March 20^th

The history lesson today is provided by Thomas Sowell. Mr. Sowell likens Benjamin Netanyahu to Winston Churchill because both were sounding the alarm against aggression. One might as well compare a lion with a weasel!

Churchill tried to prod the British into rearming to face the Nazi threat. Roosevelt tried to do that in this country but was blocked at every step by Republicans in Congress who insisted that we remain neutral; other ‘American Firsters” claimed that we should not antagonize Hitler.

Sowell goes on at some length detailing the various attempts to control Nazi expansion with treaties; none worked, Hitler never kept his word. He was almost as bad at keeping treaties as we were with the Native American tribes. It is estimated that we had and broke about 500 “Indian Treaties.” We broke other treaties as well; the Guadalupe–Hidalgo Treaty of 1848 which ended the war with Mexico had conditions which were essentially ignored by this country. (Nor will you find them in Texas history school books.)

Sowell claims that Churchill said in 1932 that, “Alone among nations we have disarmed while others have rearmed.” Sowell claims that, “Today the United States has that dubious and reckless distinction.” He claims that, “While Russia and China increased the share of their national output devoted to military spending we have decreased ours.” That’s true and egregiously misleading. Sowell actually implies here that we are disarming! Sowell says that, “Churchill deplored the gullibility of disarmament advocates in 1932 and that gullibility is still not exhausted in 2015.”

Let’s look at some data from the Stockholm International Center for Peace Institute: In 2012 the combined military expenditures of China and Russia was .257 billion dollars, our expenditures were .682 billion dollars or 2.65 times as much as the combined expenditures of China and Russia. In 2013 China and Russia combine for .276 billion while we spent .640 billion, or 2.32 times as much. In 2014 China and Russia spent .199 billion while we spent .581 billion, a decrease from the previous year but now 2.92 times as much as China and Russia spent together. This, Sowell implies, is some sort of disarmament? I wonder if his belief that we are disarming has led Sowell to sell short any defense stocks. Somehow I doubt that he has done that.

Sowell doesn’t have as much trouble with the truth as Netanyahu who has now that he has won the election is trying to back away from his claim that he against a two state solution. He just isn’t in favor of it right this very minute. Can you say weasel?