America Alone (33 page)

"It's my opinion that we have been the policemen of the world long enough. We policed the seas for pirates and slavers. Now we police the land for dervishes and brigands and every sort of danger to civilization. There is never a mad priest or a witch doctor, or a firebrand of any sort on this planet, who does not report his appearance by sniping the nearest British officer. One tires of it at last. If a Kurd breaks loose in Asia Minor, the world wants to know why Great Britain does not
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keep him in order. If there is a military mutiny in Egypt, or a jihad in the Sudan, it is still Great Britain who has to set it right. And all to an accompaniment of curses such as the policeman gets when he seizes a ruffian among his pals. We get hard knocks and no thanks, and why should we do it? Let Europe do its own dirty work."

"Well," said Colonel Cochrane, crossing his legs and leaning forward with the decision of a man who has definite opinions, "I don't at all agree with you, Brown, and I think that to advocate such a course is to take a very limited view of our national duties. I think that behind national interests and diplomacy and all that there lies a great guiding force--a Providence, in fact--which is forever getting the best out of each nation and using it for the good of the whole. When a nation ceases to respond, it is time that she went into hospital for a few centuries, like Spain or Greece--the virtue has gone out of her. A man or a nation is not placed upon this earth to do merely what is pleasant and what is profitable. It is often called upon to carry out what is both unpleasant and unprofitable, but if it is obviously right it is mere shirking not to undertake it."

We have been shirking too long, and that's unworthy of a great civilization. To see off the new Dark Ages will be tough and demanding. The alternative will be worse.
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• Prologue
  
• Part I: The Gelded Age
  
  • Chapter 1: The Coming of Age
    
  • Chapter 2: Going ... Going ... Gone
    
  • Chapter 3: Men Are from Venus
    
• Part II: Arabian Nights
  
  • Chapter 4: Flying the Coop
    
  • Chapter 5: The Anything They'll Believe In
    
  • Chapter 6: The Four Horsemen of the Eupocalypse
    
• Part III: The New Dark Ages
  
  • Chapter 7: The State-of-the-Art Primitive
    
  • Chapter 8: The Unipole Apart
    
  • Chapter 9: The Importance of Being Exceptional
    
  • Chapter 10: The Falling Camel