Morning Note

Who won World War II? 

If you ask most Westerners, they’ll immediately say the Allies. That’s what the history textbooks claim, after all. But is it really true? Is Western Europe better off today than it was before the war? Unfortunately, no, it isn’t. Just ask people who remember the difference.

A century-old British veteran chastised the current state of his country on Friday, expressing heartbreak over its leaders running it into the ground following the defeat of Nazi Germany. 

“The sacrifice wasn’t worth the result,” former Royal Navy officer Alec Penstone said. "What we fought for was our freedom – we fought for it. Even now, it's a darn sight worse than when I fought for it.”

Whether anyone cares to admit it, much of Western Europe has embraced the exact kind of totalitarianism it pledged to defeat in the 1940s. The continent’s civil liberties are essentially dead, its governments ruled with an iron fist during COVID, and police regularly arrest people for exercising their right to speak. 

That’s hardly a way to reward honorable men like Penstone for putting their lives on the line. 

Read more.