America and Britain's Global Reach—Prophesied in the Bible?

The United States and Britain combined to defeat European tyranny in two world wars, then Iraqi tyranny twice in the last 12 years. Why has it fallen to them to police the world?

by Melvin Rhodes

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher inadvertently predicted the outcome of the second Persian Gulf war 10 years before it was fought. Interviewed on an American breakfast television program, she observed: "The great lesson of the 20th century is that whenever the American and British peoples stand together, they always win."

Certainly in the first two wars of this new century in which both were involved, they also won. The victorious allies triumphed over the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban in Afghanistan and over the fascist regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

Prior to the 20th century, the great 19th-century German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck predicted that the most important geopolitical fact of the coming 20th century was that Britain and America spoke the same language. This was to prove fateful for the German-speaking peoples, defeated in two world wars by the two major English-speaking nations and their allies.

Britain and America do not always speak the same language, of course. Sir Winston Churchill, whose father was British and mother American, quipped that British and Americans were "separated by a common language." There are many subtle differences between the two languages (as with English elsewhere around the world) that can lead to misunderstandings.

America and Britain do not always speak the same language in a figurative sense either. Their national interests sometimes fail to coincide. Geographical location has a lot to do with this—the British sometimes seeing things more from a European perspective. This has increasingly been the case since Britain joined the European Union (formerly the EEC) in 1973. Many Britons remain fully committed to the ideals of European unity, though many others are either anti-European or skeptical at best.

But Mrs. Thatcher's dictum remains true nonetheless. In both world wars and throughout the Cold War, the United States and Britain usually fought together—and won. Two notable defeats were Vietnam (which Britain stayed out of) and the 1956 Suez Crisis (where America's president did not support British action against Egypt after Egypt nationalized the British- and French-owned Suez Canal). These two failures only serve to underscore the truth of Mrs. Thatcher's observation.

Read the full article at www.gnmagazine.org/issues/gn47/globalreach.htm

Related Information on UCG Sites:

Table of Contents that includes "America and Britain's Global Reach -- Prophesied in the Bible?"
Other Articles by Melvin Rhodes

British Empire:

Israel, ten tribes:

U.S. power:

Search Our Site
Key Subjects Index
General Topics Index
Biblical References Index
Good News Magazine Index
Booklets and All Literature Index
Home Page of this site