"A distant bridge"! The golden sentence of World War II has become the anti-epidemic language of the United States, revealing the sentiment of "too difficult"

When it comes to the covid-19 pandemic, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Ohio Gov. Mike Dewin both use the expression "a distant bridge." This is from a British general during World War II.

The Associated Press reported on the 17th that Fauci said last week that counting on targeted therapies or vaccines to be available so that students can return to school in the fall is "a distant bridge."

Dewin lamented on ABC's "This Week" program that it was too difficult to get the public to accept the mask-wearing measure, like "a distant bridge."

"A distant bridge" comes from British Lieutenant General Frederick Browning in World War II. In September 1944, he took part in an Allied military operation, planning to seize a series of bridges in the Netherlands controlled by German troops and then cross the Rhine to attack Germany. The plan was designed to end World War II in a short period of time, but ended in a crushing defeat.

Referring to a key target in the operation, a bridge in Arnhem, the Netherlands, Browning said: "I think we are going to a distant bridge. The Allies were later defeated by stubborn Resistance from the Germans in their battle for the bridge.

The book "The Distant Bridge", written by the author Cornelius Ryan based on this history, was published in 1974 and later made by Hollywood as a film of the same name.

Alexander Lovelace, a scholar of military history at Ohio University, said who would have thought that the phrase would be repeated through history.

Column Editor-in-Chief: Zhang Wu Text Editor: Lu Xiaochuan Caption Source: Visual China Image Editor: Yong Kai