From Daffyd on the "Captains Quarters" blog, here and especially here:

One reason I have such faith in the British is that I remember my history.

Great Britain did not simply endure the Battle of Britain, the attempt by Nazi Germany to subjugate the British people. They fought back. The RAF was in the air every damned day and hellish night, fighting, killing, and defying the enemy.

In 1940, while America still slumbered in splendid isolationism and Stalin was still allied with Hitler, Great Britain became the very first country to refuse to join the Nazis, to refuse to surrender to the Nazis, and actually to defeat the Nazis and drive them off.

Adolf Hitler was dumbfounded. After Dunkirk, he made the same mistake the terrorists make today: he thought Great Britain was defeated and would quickly offer her surrender. But instead, the British dug in and fought back, despite staggering losses -- more than 20,000 dead and 30,000 wounded -- and the Brits shot down literally hundreds of Luftwaffe bombers and escort fighters. In the end, "Operation Sealion" was a catastrophic defeat for Hitler, the first time the Nazis had ever been thrown back. The first but not the last; Britain led the way.

History tells me that the British will continue to lead the way, right alongside us, just has they have since 9/11. I have faith today's generation will live up to yesterday's, just as they have here in America.