You’ve heard of “The Mouse That Roared.” Sequester is the “Lion That Hiccuped.” Warning: This does not mean America is safe.
Historians have an annoying habit of swinging backwards on new
headlines like monkeys, looking for bygone parallels that may or may not
tell us useful things. The painlessness of the sequester reminds this
amateur historian of the “Phony War,” the eight months of World War II
after the Germans swallowed Poland, and Britain and France declared war.
The world yawned. Comics in England called it the “Sitz-krieg,”
opposite of “Blitz-krieg.”
Are you aware that France, in that lull, invaded Germany?
French troops crossed the Rhine from Strasbourg to the German city of
Kehl, drove around, took some pictures and then went back home in time
for dinner. A hit song in Britain around that time was, “We’ll Be
Hanging Out Our Washing on the Siegfried Line.” The Siegfried Line was a
German defensive line in World War I! But “Sitz” became “Blitz” soon
enough. France surrendered in June 1940. A quarter-of-a-million
British troops had to be rescued from the Nazis, by flotation devices
ranging from boats to canoes and even inner tubes, from the beach at
Dunkirk. British comedy closed shop.
