Saturday, 21 April 2007

Dane-Geld


Something that should be cast in bronze and nailed to the desk of every politician, diplomat or editorialist who thinks it's possible to appease terrorists and tyrants.

Dane-geld

Rudyard Kipling

It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation,
To call upon a neighbour and to say:—
“We invaded you last night—we are quite prepared to fight,
Unless you pay us cash to go away.”

And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
And the people who ask it explain
That you’ve only to pay ’em the Dane-geld
And then you’ll get rid of the Dane!

It is always a temptation to a rich and lazy nation,
To puff and look important and to say:—
“Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
We will therefore pay you cash to go away.”

And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we’ve proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.

It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
For fear they should succumb and go astray,
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
You will find it better policy to say:—

“We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that plays it is lost!”

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Let's make something clear, there is no monolithic muslim conspiracy against the west. I don't know what elaborate, paranoid, xenaphobic invasion fantasy you have concocted in your sad, rotten mind, but terrorist groups are small and independant organisations, often with little material support and occasional but quickly severed ties with other groups, but you seem to think that all muslims are waiting for the order from the caliph to storm the capitals of Europe and the only way to stop them is to charge headlong into the middle east and shoot everything that moves, it's not going to happen.

David said...

Odd. I said "terrorists and tyrants" I never even mentioned Muslims.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Coward...er...Anonymous:

You’ve actually managed to annoy me, here.

Regardless of Mr. Szondy's original point, your pathetic devotion to the idea that the clash between Islam and the West, is truly indicative of how you and all leftists will fiddle as civilization burns.

Pick up a goddamn history book and LEARN something. This is NOT some phantasmagorical struggle between the *noble* Muslim "have-nots" and the *evil* capitalistic western "haves". Wahhabists have been yearning for TOTAL dominion over the world since the eighth century, and they smolder each and every decade over the fact that the rest of the world does not flagellate itself with Sharia.

They're going to kill you too, Mr. Anonymous. And your childlike conflict resolution and foolhardy moral relativism is only going to garner you one fate: your severed head being dropped into the bucket LAST.

Pull yourself out from between the sandwich of Noam Chomsky and Gordon Brown and find a SOUL, you naive, dogmatic imbecile.

Much appreciated.

Anonymous said...

I never claimed that the muslims were nobile or that the west was evil, I simply think that we should focus on internal security to stop domestic threats and hold off the pointless triumphalist adventurism an attack is made that is directly linked to the government of another nation.

Terrorism is a police issue, not a military one.

Anonymous said...

And thank you for claiming that I have no soul for simply thinking that there is a less aggressive solution to security issues and not wanting to go and enforce my ideals where they are unwelcome (and yes I am aware of the irony here) For your information I have never read Noam Chomsky or any other so-called leftist idealogue you could care to mention, this is just my personal opinion, the product of my own soul you self righteous twit.

Anonymous said...

I was about to conjure up a full-pronged rebuttal to your psuedo-intellectual swill when I noticed this:

"Terrorism is a police issue, not a military one."

Well, you've certainly clarified each and every one of my points then. You're a hopeless case. All I can do now is pray that you never, ever hold a position of power.