231 years later, history repeats itself
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." — Georges Santayana
by Leigh Pomeroy
Georges Santayana's words have been paraphrased in many different ways, but the meaning is still the same: Leaders who do not know the lessons of history often repeat the lessons that history teaches us.
It's too bad President Bush and his advisers didn't read David McCullough's 1776 prior to committing to war Iraq, but then Prof. McCullough hadn't published it till 2005. Yet that's not an excuse, since the information that he has condensed into a fascinating tome has been available in one for or another for the last 230 years.
Just what is the lesson that the events of 1776, as well as the American Revolutionary War, which didn't end for another seven years, teach us? It is quite simply this: No occupying force can prevail in a country where it is not welcome.
McCullough's book makes it clear that militarily the year 1776 was for George Washington's ragtag army mostly an unmitigated disaster. They were outnumbered, outgunned and outdisciplined. There was no navy to support them while the British forces could count on a fleet of hundreds of ships. The American forces were ill-clothed and ill-fed. Often they were not paid. Many were teenagers. Most had no military training. Clean water was not available. Personal hygiene was impossible. Up to a third of the army was sick at any given time with smallpox, dysentery or any number of other diseases.
Yes, there were a few notable successes that have been played up in our history books: the Battle of Bunker Hill, the British withdrawal from Boston, and finally the Battle of Trenton, when Washington and the bulk of what was left of his army crossed the Delaware River on Christmas night and routed 1,500 unsuspecting Hessian mercenaries.
Yet the British victories were far more impressive: the lightning march across Long Island, the taking of New York City with hardly a shot fired, the surrender of Fort Washington and 2,837 Americans who then became prisoners of war. Compare this to the famous Battle of Trenton, in which 21 Hessians were killed, 90 were wounded, and 900 were taken prisoner — a third of the Fort Washington numbers.
How many times did the brothers Howe — Gen. William and Admiral Richard, who commanded the British forces at the time — essentially declare "mission accomplished," only to be surprised by the perseverance of the American patriots?
It is true that the situation in Iraq is hardly a direct parallel. For one difference, the Iraqis often seem more intent on fighting each other than on trying to expel the American forces. And indeed a sizable number of Iraqis would prefer the Americans to stay. But the same was true in the American colonies in 1776, when as many as a third of the population opposed separation from England.
No matter what the U.S. does in Iraq — be it increase forces, maintain the same strength, withdraw slowly or withdraw all at once — killing and human tragedy will continue. It is too late to go back and close the lid on the Pandora's box that the U.S. ruling elite opened nearly four years ago. But if the U.S. didn't learn from the errors of the past when it initiated this war, can it not learn from other events as a means toward ending this fiasco?
It is a fallacy that war ends with absolute victory or defeat; history teaches us that war often ends based on attrition. People simply get tired of it. The war in Iraq has gone on for nearly four years. If American citizens are finally getting tired of it — and the vast majority of them are not even suffering — imagine what ordinary Iraqis think.
Sometimes change is good, and just the creation of change, even though its results are unpredictable, yields positive results. In other words, if things can't get much worse, then any significant new direction will create an improved situation.
The British finally learned this in 1783, seven years after the beginning of the American uprising, when they finally abandoned their attempts to reign in the renegade colonies and pulled their armies out. This is the lesson that the U.S. can still learn today. A U.S. pullout from Iraq is inevitable. Whether that occurs in 2007 or in 2010 is a simply a matter of choice.
by Leigh Pomeroy
Georges Santayana's words have been paraphrased in many different ways, but the meaning is still the same: Leaders who do not know the lessons of history often repeat the lessons that history teaches us.
It's too bad President Bush and his advisers didn't read David McCullough's 1776 prior to committing to war Iraq, but then Prof. McCullough hadn't published it till 2005. Yet that's not an excuse, since the information that he has condensed into a fascinating tome has been available in one for or another for the last 230 years.
Just what is the lesson that the events of 1776, as well as the American Revolutionary War, which didn't end for another seven years, teach us? It is quite simply this: No occupying force can prevail in a country where it is not welcome.
McCullough's book makes it clear that militarily the year 1776 was for George Washington's ragtag army mostly an unmitigated disaster. They were outnumbered, outgunned and outdisciplined. There was no navy to support them while the British forces could count on a fleet of hundreds of ships. The American forces were ill-clothed and ill-fed. Often they were not paid. Many were teenagers. Most had no military training. Clean water was not available. Personal hygiene was impossible. Up to a third of the army was sick at any given time with smallpox, dysentery or any number of other diseases.
Yes, there were a few notable successes that have been played up in our history books: the Battle of Bunker Hill, the British withdrawal from Boston, and finally the Battle of Trenton, when Washington and the bulk of what was left of his army crossed the Delaware River on Christmas night and routed 1,500 unsuspecting Hessian mercenaries.
Yet the British victories were far more impressive: the lightning march across Long Island, the taking of New York City with hardly a shot fired, the surrender of Fort Washington and 2,837 Americans who then became prisoners of war. Compare this to the famous Battle of Trenton, in which 21 Hessians were killed, 90 were wounded, and 900 were taken prisoner — a third of the Fort Washington numbers.
How many times did the brothers Howe — Gen. William and Admiral Richard, who commanded the British forces at the time — essentially declare "mission accomplished," only to be surprised by the perseverance of the American patriots?
It is true that the situation in Iraq is hardly a direct parallel. For one difference, the Iraqis often seem more intent on fighting each other than on trying to expel the American forces. And indeed a sizable number of Iraqis would prefer the Americans to stay. But the same was true in the American colonies in 1776, when as many as a third of the population opposed separation from England.
No matter what the U.S. does in Iraq — be it increase forces, maintain the same strength, withdraw slowly or withdraw all at once — killing and human tragedy will continue. It is too late to go back and close the lid on the Pandora's box that the U.S. ruling elite opened nearly four years ago. But if the U.S. didn't learn from the errors of the past when it initiated this war, can it not learn from other events as a means toward ending this fiasco?
It is a fallacy that war ends with absolute victory or defeat; history teaches us that war often ends based on attrition. People simply get tired of it. The war in Iraq has gone on for nearly four years. If American citizens are finally getting tired of it — and the vast majority of them are not even suffering — imagine what ordinary Iraqis think.
Sometimes change is good, and just the creation of change, even though its results are unpredictable, yields positive results. In other words, if things can't get much worse, then any significant new direction will create an improved situation.
The British finally learned this in 1783, seven years after the beginning of the American uprising, when they finally abandoned their attempts to reign in the renegade colonies and pulled their armies out. This is the lesson that the U.S. can still learn today. A U.S. pullout from Iraq is inevitable. Whether that occurs in 2007 or in 2010 is a simply a matter of choice.
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If you read the Santayana quote that you cite, the sentences that follow are also quite appropriate.
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. In the first stage of life the mind is frivolous and easily distracted, it misses progress by failing in consecutiveness and persistence. This is the condition of children and barbarians, in which instinct has learned nothing from experience.
George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Volume 1, 1905
Considering Iraq, The New York Times in an article also cited on Vox Verax today, states “A growing number of Iraqis blamed the United States on Sunday for creating conditions that led to the worst single suicide bombing in the war …”
Have you heard Tom Friedman compare the Wal*Mart procurement practices to suicide bombers? According to Friedman, “Wal-Mart has designed a global supply chain down to the last atom of efficiency, so if you take an item off the shelf in Brooklyn, another is immediately made in Shenzhen, China. Al Qaeda is nothing more than a mutant supply chain. Al Qaeda is an open source religious political movement that works off the global supply chain. You take one bomber and deploy him in Baghdad, and another is manufactured in Riyadh the next day.” Friedman’s concern is that the war in Iraq has been an enormous boon to the international Jihadi movement, encouraging angry youths from all over the world to join it to fight.
Friedman’s concern is more than valid. In the book, The Looming Tower, it describes a fourteen year old who “would sit in front of the television and weep over the news from Palestine.” That youth was Osama bin Laden.
We need to learn from history, not repeat it.
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