May 11, 2011 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • Page 17 those who died trying to save them will endure in memory through the rest of the century. Arguably, America’s displaced aggression against Iraq was the wrong way to deal with an attack on American civilians. The elimination of bin Laden was the right way to deal with it. Bin Laden’s willingness to murder innocent people to prove a point was utterly evil and set this beast and his immediate entourage apart from the rest of humanity. Tragically, the fact that we killed a large number of Iraqi civilians who had nothing to do with the Sept. 11 attacks and that we’ve been generated hate propaganda against Muslims ever since, could mean that the evil bin Laden did may live after him. What he may have wanted was a protracted U.S. war against Islam. We sort of gave it to him. The United States needed to get bin Laden to show the world that those who wantonly murder Americans in our own country cannot escape. I am intensely bothered by the people who danced in the street when the Twin Towers collapsed, and by the people who attempt to direct America’s foreign policy for the benefit of every country but the one we live in. This has to stop, and now it can stop. Bin Laden is dead. We can now cancel the heritage he tried to stick to us: a permanent war against Islam until we are exhausted by our own casualties and the collateral atrocities guerrilla warfare forces us to inflict on civilians. Let’s leave word that any terrorist-friendly country that attempts to develop or launch a nuclear attack will get a bigger nuclear attack. Withdraw the Peace Corps volunteers. Withdraw any missionaries who are willing to leave, and relocate any local Christians or Jews who are likely to be murdered. Given the demographics of some of the countries which now claim to be our friends, that probably means just about all of them. Part of our culture (for people who were alive in the 1930s, and for people who watched a lot of TV in the 1950s and early 1960s) were the British Empire films, also known as the Imperial Epics. Greatest of these were the “Lives of a Bengal Lancer” with Gary Cooper and “The Charge of the Light Brigade” with Errol Flynn. One of the most racist, yet best-loved by Americans, was “Gunga Din” with Victor McLaglen, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and Cary Grant. The heroes of these films were adventurous white men put in control of sinister Asians who were engaged in terrible conspiracies against the British rule over Hindu and Muslim alike. “The Charge of the Light Brigade” offers a more subtle motivation. Colonel Volonoff, the Russian who advises Surat Khan, is a dead ringer for Stalin. Everybody from Shirley Temple in “Wee Willie Winkie” to Peter Lorre in the “Mister Moto” films was involved in the attempt to protect colonialists from South Asians and Arabs. Far less acceptable today is that the villain in “Gunga Din” is a bloodthirsty clone of Mahatma Gandhi. Anybody who tried to sell Americans on an international war to protect the world from Mahatma Gandhi would be found rather implausible by anyone who lived through the 1960s and remembers Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a great admirer of Gandhi and his steadfast non-violence. But “Gunga Din” was hugely popular at the time, far more so than the more romantic and less hostile representations of Muslims and Hindus by Alexander Korda such as “The Thief of Baghdad” and “The Jungle Book.” Here is a curious anomaly: The more racist films about Arabs and Asian Indians were made in the United States, which had no controlling interest over either group, while the more sympathetic films were made in Great Britain, where the filmmakers may have known better than to insult people on a religious basis. Go figure. I don’t think the royal wedding was intended to sell us anything. I think some very nice people wanted to invite us to a royal good time, and they did so. But just at the end came a relevance check. The much heralded Battle of Britain Fly-By turned out to be a whopping three aircraft: two single-engine Spitfires, looking heroic, and a four-engine Lancaster bomber, looking funereal. Spitfires defended England from foreign bombs. Lancasters dropped incendiary bombs on foreign women and children. They should have flown by with a dozen Spitfires and Hurricanes and left the Lancaster in the hangar. People still bomb civilians today, but nobody who is in his right mind seems proud of it. We should enjoy the pageantry, the uniforms, the fashions, and the grandeur of Britain’s literary tradition. We should not buy a used empire from these people. Britain, an island about the size of California, once ruled a large part of the world with a certain degree of justice and with enormous courage, and the upper classes got rich doing it, so much so that they often died from overeating. The poorer classes were so badly nourished that during the first decade of the 20th century, 60 percent of England’s young men were said to be unfit for future military service. Only one man in 15,000 had a university education. The United States is a lot bigger than California, and while the oil companies may need a world empire, the rest of us would rather watch our children and grandchildren grow up without being slain by foreign terrorists. Cherish the memory of the empire that we remember at the royal wedding. Cancel the anachronistic war against Islam that has ended with an American victory now that bin Laden is dead. The kind of courageous, highly proficient U.S. soldiers who killed him for us are too good to go to waste in other peoples’ quarrels or wars of economic desperation. We can still take care of ourselves right here at home if we start right away. The big news two weeks ago was the royal wedding. The big news last week was the assassination of Osama bin Laden. What do these events tell us about where America stands in history? First the wedding: I got to see most of it, and I was glad that I did. The pageantry was amazing. My wife pointed out that the horses seemed to be proud to take part in the ceremonial parades, and knowing something about horses I think that the horses were actually happy, if not proud, to get dressed up and take part in what was obviously a chance to get some healthy exercise and a lot of applause. The way they were nodding their heads made it look like they were acknowledging the applause. One of the commentators, India Hicks – a ring bearer, I think, at the wedding of Charles and Diana -- let it slip that after the parade the horses were always given carrots as a special reward, so their enthusiasm may have been pragmatic – but you could tell they were having a good time. My wife’s theory was that the horses were happy because they were going to a wedding and not to battle. I suspect she’s right. The same week as the royal wedding, “Nature” on PBS showed the latest episode of “Cloud: The Wild Stallion,” by Ginger Kathren and offered us some insight into just how lucky the Guards Cavalry horses and coach horses are. People who have seen this excellent series will know that Kathrens, a wildlife photographer active in Montana, has been keeping track of Cloud, a wild stallion, since his birth in 1995. Kathren, a superb documentary naturalist, loves the wild horses and sometimes prays for them. She records their adventures, sometimes riding her own saddle horse, Trace, and sometimes driving an all-terrain vehicle, with action photographs of rare beauty. The latest episode was especially poignant because Sitka, Cloud’s main mare, disappeared and was presumed dead, and Dusty, Kitka and Cloud’s frisky foal, was killed and eaten by a mountain lion. Cloud is still sturdy, and long since a grandfather, but the heavy attrition due to predation, starvation, lightning strikes, and the sometimes misguided interference of the Bureau of Land Management agents shows how tough it is to be a wild horse. War horses have it tough too. In tropical climates, they generally die during their first campaign. The lure of the cavalry to upper-class gentlemen who could never past a test in advanced algebra to qualify for the infantry or the artillery was irresistible. A cavalry commission was also a consolation prize. I think that the peacetime Guards Cavalry horses and coach horses came down in the right place, and seem to know it. They are a glorious anachronism. Bin Laden’s assassination – a lawful execution if ever there was one, whatever the UN thinks about it – was as ugly as the royal wedding was beautiful, but it was utterly relevant. None of us will ever forget the staggering morning when 3,000 of our friends, neighbors, and foreign guests were murdered. The names of the people who died and A royal wedding and a colonialist divorce Letters to the Editor VFW leader wants TFAC, pantry reinstated events, worship services, weekly model airplane club meetings, etc. Something is wrong with this picture. Why is there is room for these activities, but not to accommodate a food pantry for our troops and their families? May God continue to bless America! Stanley A. Kober, Commander Washington Elm VFW Post 192 Ridgewood/Ho-Ho-Kus Dear Editor: Recently, I wrote to you and your readers about the events perpetrated by our New Jersey State Militia Commanders on the veterans and families supported by the volunteer staff of the Teaneck Armory Family Assistance Center/ Family Readiness Group/Food Pantry in Teaneck. The center opened its doors in 2004 and has been called the “model” facility in at least New Jersey. As of this date, not enough have responded to our call for help because the pantry is still closed. I am asking your readers again to immediately contact Governor Christie as commander-in-chief of the New Jersey State Militia at (609) 292-6000 and urge him to visit with the volunteers, hear their side of this travesty, and reinstate the TFAC and Food Pantry as soon as possible. As mentioned earlier, the Teaneck Armory Food Pantry was staffed by volunteers and filled with donations from the Veterans of Foreign Wars Posts, American Legion, and other organizations in Bergen County…at no cost to the New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs or the State of New Jersey. While the soldiers and their families are being told to drive to Bordentown -- and who has money for that if they don’t have money for food, etc.? -- and elsewhere for their needs to be met, it is my understanding that the armory still is being made available for soccer team training and