Ambassador Issues Call to Heroism

If Iraqi troops do not peacefully withdraw from Kuwait, British and American soldiers should enter armed conflict with the same “courage and heroism” of their World War II counterparts, the British ambassador to the United States said Sunday.

In a speech commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, Sir Antony Acland compared the current Persian Gulf crisis to the 1940 battle in which the Royal Air Force fiercely defended Britain against relentless attacks by Hitler’s mighty Luftwaffe. Considered a turning point in history, the battle gave rise to Winston Churchill’s famous remark, “Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few.”

The battle “symbolizes the victory of freedom over tyranny in the face of great adversity and initially overwhelming odds,” he said. “And that of course is still a very important and relevant message today, following Saddam Hussein’s brutal aggression against Kuwait.”

The United Kingdom was among the first to support the United States in its call for a multinational response to the Aug. 2 Iraqi invasion. British forces in the gulf area will soon reach 15,000 personnel, 120 tanks, 4 1/2 squadrons of fighter aircraft and 12 ships.

In the gulf, as in World War II, “we find that Britain and the United States are once again side by side, with a unity of purpose and a unity of resolve,” Acland said.

Acland said that although he hopes for a peaceful resolution, armed conflict is a last resort, “to be exercised only when all others have failed.”

“But if the call should come,” he said, “we can be sure that the same courage and heroism which we commemorate this evening is beating in the hearts of the young men and women of both of our armed forces today.”

Acland spoke at the opening dinner of the Festival of Britain, a three-week event celebrating cultural links between Orange County and the United Kingdom.

He noted that the band of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, which had been scheduled to play Sunday in Costa Mesa, had just been deployed to the gulf as part of the 7th Armoured Brigade--the successors to the “Desert Rats” who fought Rommel in North Africa in World War II.