“How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property – either as a child, a wife, or a concubine – must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the faith: all know how to die but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilizations of ancient Rome.”
― Winston S. Churchill, The River War
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1) I thought Winston Churchill LIKED Dervishes in a fanatical frenzy– made it easy to cut 23,000 of them down at Omdurman with Maxim guns
and artillery. With a cost of only 47 British dead, 382 wounded.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Omdurman#Aftermath
2) Of course the hollow point bullet — made at arsenal Dum Dum — helped.
3) Later, of course, Winston realized it was more efficient to simply drag Americans into the fray with claptrap and offer to hold our jackets while we did the heavy lifting of defending the Empire.
And we have been the military arm of the Old British Empire, in particular, since World War I.