When the great Rudyard Kipling wrote Recessional back in 1897, he did it to warn his fellow Victorian Brits that, yes, while its empire was indeed magnificent, a little humility was in order. Why? Because empires aren’t permanent. Because, like all other manmade things, they rise and they fall.

Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget — lest we forget!

Were Kipling alive today, though, I doubt he’d be gloating about how right he was. Instead, I suspect he’d poke his head into London’s empty cathedrals, and he’d consider its majority-minority composition, Pakistani rape gangs, and utter lack of confidence and cohesion, and he’d cry out: I said humility, you dunderheads, not suicidal self-loathing!

I take this poetic detour as a backdrop to the news over the weekend that British police had arrested five British nationals near an air base used not only by the Brits but also by U.S. Air Force B-1B and B-52 bombers to conduct strikes on Iran.

As NBC News reports, “The five men, all from London and in their early to mid-20s, were arrested Sunday on suspicion of terrorism and explosives offenses after three suspicious vehicles were seen moving toward RAF Fairford, a Royal Air Force station about 90 minutes west of London.”

Remarkably, but perhaps not surprisingly, the arrests were made on Sunday night not because of superior British intelligence but because, as a local resident and farmer in Gloucestershire told the BBC, “She had called police late in the evening after coming across three white vans blocking a road near RAF Fairford. ... As she turned her car around, she told the BBC that her headlights illuminated a group of ‘hooded and masked men’ who ‘panicked’ upon being spotted and scrambled into a nearby woods.”

I mean, it’s probably nothing, right? Probably just some guys out having a little fun in the woods near a joint UK/U.S. air base, right? Probably just a game of hide-and-seek, right?

Wrong. How fortunate that a local Brit saw something and said something.

The men’s vehicles — all three of them vans — apparently had “barrels of material” in them, causing the authorities to evacuate 85 nearby homes as a precaution. As the Daily Mail reports, “Experts feared it could be a huge vehicle bomb capable of ‘massive’ destruction. But testing has now revealed that it is not explosive material, according to sources.”

I wonder: Did “testing” also reveal that the men weren’t engaged in some sort of dress rehearsal, some sort of terrorist dry run? They often do such things, y’know.

I ask this question because yesterday, the Brits released these guys on bail — as if they were suspected of, say, trespassing or shoplifting rather than blowing up a strategic air base and killing a bunch of British and American airmen.

The Brits, of course, say they have their best people on it. As assistant commissioner and head of Britain’s counterterrorism police Laurence Taylor told reporters outside New Scotland Yard, “I can confirm that, following extensive interviews and inquiries, the five men who were arrested are being released on police bail this afternoon.” He added, “To be very clear, this does not mean that the investigation is over. They are subject to stringent conditions on their movement and contact with others. They absolutely remain under investigation as we explore multiple lines of inquiry.”

Whew. That’s a relief. President Donald Trump, though, doesn’t agree with the bail decision. “I would’ve said don’t let them have bail,” he said yesterday from the Oval Office upon hearing the news. “I’m surprised that they released them. I wouldn’t have done that.” Me neither, for what it’s worth.

Memo to our British friends: Unless you’ve come up with a perfectly plausible non-terroristic reason as to why these five military-age men of as-yet undisclosed ethnicity and religious persuasion were behaving so downright suspiciously near an air base from which we just so happen to dispatch our B-1B bombers to Iran, maybe just keep them in custody a while longer, mmm-kay?

Iran, for its part, took to X to vociferously deny these scurrilous allegations:

The Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in London categorically rejects and strongly condemns the recent unfounded and malicious speculations published by some British individuals and media outlets attempting to link Iran to arrest of five suspects in the vicinity of RAF Fairford base. The Circulation of such fabricated speculations, particularly in the aftermath of the criminal acts of aggression committed by the United States and the Israeli regime against the Iranian people, will serve no purpose other than to fuel Iranophobia propaganda in the UK.

Of course, the IRGC has also said, “Any base used to launch attacks on Iranian territory is a legitimate target for our forces.” And the IRGC also plotted to kill President Trump, as well as two of his then-lieutenants — former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former National Security Adviser John Bolton. So I wouldn’t put it past them.

Which brings me back to the Brits’ jaw-slackening decision to let these five mystery men out on bail. Why? Don’t these people know there’s a Long War to be won against radical Islam?

If Europe really is our DEW Line, if what happens there today really is headed to a theater near us tomorrow, then perhaps a dose of Kiplingesque humility will only hasten its arrival. Perhaps, instead, a stiffer national spine and a dose of patriotism is what Once Great Britain needed then — and what we here in the Colonies need today.

Lest we forget — lest we forget!