This was written by Daniel Hannan, who according to Wikipedia:
Daniel John Hannan, Baron Hannan of Kingsclere (born 1 September 1971) is a British writer, journalist and former politician serving as an adviser to the Board of Trade since 2020.
So he is an expert.
This is from his article in The Telegraph.
?️ "They seem so like us. That is what makes it so shocking. War is no longer something visited upon impoverished and remote populations. It can happen to anyone" | Writes Daniel Hannan https://t.co/FwHREn1xzR
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) February 26, 2022
I’m not an expert but I remember when there was war in Yugoslavia, Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia, and Herzegovina.
Those wars led to the breakup of the Balkans and the word Balkanization entering the lexicon.
I’m pretty sure the Balkans are in Europe.
I was in middle school when they started and high school when they ended.
Baron Hannan is in his 50s. He should remember them.
Then there were The Troubles in Northern Ireland. That’s also Europe and pretty close to England too.
I’m not sure if that was technically a war but it involved the British military.
For what it’s worth the Berlin Wall came down when I was a kid, but that was a Cold War so maybe that doesn’t quite count.
I have a picture on my wall of my grandfather in a US Army uniform standing somewhere in France.
That’s in Europe. True, two generations remove from me but it still happened.
I guess I know enough history to know that war doesn’t just happen in remote areas to impoverished people.
But maybe the Europeans are just very good as blanking all the violent history that took place in their own back yards from their memory and now it shocks them.
Within the living memory of his parents, aunts, uncles, and neighbors is the wanton dropping of bombs on England. If he knows no one with gray hair, he has a least seen it in history books, movies, and television. Doctor Who?! How could he possibly be so clueless?
British equivalent of ‘poor people are just as smart as white people”?
Anyone who has been to south-east England has been to the battle field where the RAF held off the Luftwaffe. People who “mudlark” — search the Thames at low tide — still find casings fired during that battle.
I suspect her “expertise” is in connections and favors, not reality.
He’s a baron — someone whose place in society is inherited rather than derived from any trace of merit. Of course he’s an ignorant idiot.
“Inselaffen” are not to be confused with other Europeans 😀