The American people are embarrassingly stupid

[SamSpade]

Compound this with our weak stomach of long wars and political disparities and you have a recipe for failure.

I haven't found evidence of free nations ever having a stomach for long wars unless they were defending their own turf. I'm thinking even back as far as imperial Rome, where in the first century they had their own equivalent period of draft dodging and war protests over wars fought far from their borders.

 

[Larry Gude]

I wish you'd stop saying that...

I'm not convinced this is a political blunder. I'm amazed at how impatient Americans have become.

We always have been and may it ever be so. Uniquely American trait.

 

[Hessian]

Dupoy & Dupoy: The Small Wars (?)...been out of print a while but it gives an excellent look at all the lesser known friction points in American History.

I am 100 pages into the Shelby Foote CW narrative in 6 volumes (?)...what a great read!!!
Naturally Killer Angels is superb.

I like Patriots by Langurth too.

Now a very painful question...something that almost makes me want to quit teaching: WHY are Americans so lousy at understanding and appreciating their history? Are we still paying the price of the hippy 60's? (In textbooks & professors?) Or has postmodernism crept in to so many curriculums that we refuse to teach "Facts?"
Is the History & Discovery channel only reaching 2% of America?
I heard
*that a bill passed in NJ urging schools to abandon teaching about our national holidays.
*20% of College students couldn't identify an achievement/cause of Martin Luther King Jr.

Have we promoted a generation of students who won't read and refuse to learn our history?? Thus we end up with X gen. voters & media with utterly irrational opinions?

 

[MMDad]

How about not starting WW3 over the cuban missile crisis and resolving it peacefully?

There's always this to hang your hat on:

John F. Kennedy (1961-1963) decided to commit American support troops to South Vietnam. Four thousand troops were sent in 1962.

 

[scottrobts]

...I give you Thermopylae.

thermopylae was pure genius on the part of the Spartans, and its not like the Persians really had a choice but to go through it, about the only mistake they did was not getting there first, but in the words of N.B.F. "get there firstest with the mostest"

 

[MMDad]

Keeps you busy so you don't have time to make the worst military blunder in 2000 years.

Unless, of course, you commit adultry AND get your country into a war that divided the nation, killed 58,178 Americans, and lasted for the next 13 years. Gee, thanks Jack.

John F. Kennedy (1961-1963) decided to commit American support troops to South Vietnam. Four thousand troops were sent in 1962.

 

[scottrobts]

This seems like a good thread to request reading recommendations in.

I'm on a history kick and almost finished with a biography of Chesty Puller. Looking for the next book, any ideas?

any book by Gordon C. Rhea, he is writing about the Civil War and covering only the period from when Grant took command of the West, starting at The Wilderness. Awesome boks, best written of any history books I have read. if you liekd Chesty Puller, there are a few good books about the Chosin Resevoir and the Korean War in general, I would have to look up what they were, but that subject always makes for good reading.

 

[Lugnut]

Hey thanks for the reading suggestions!

Bite me smoov! I like reading about teh Naval Infantry! Chesty was a BIG proponent of the Navy too! Well, a proponent of Naval gun fire support anyway.

 

[PsyOps]

We always have been and may it ever be so. Uniquely American trait.

If you are right that we "always have been and may it ever be so" impatient, then how do you explain the difference in how we view war today as apposed to WWII? I realize Americans wanted that war over with but they also understood the importance of seeing it to the end, whenever that would be. Losing was not an option no matter how bad things appeared.

I will never stop being an optimist for this country and I will never stop being a realist in terms of how Americans are changing, for the worse, when it comes to knowing our enemies and defending this country from them. We have become a spoiled and arrogant country.

 

[Hessian]

Just graded...

My 127 question midterm:
among my juniors...I just graded a perfect paper (+ bonus!)
God Bless Sarah M.!

 

[scottrobts]

come to think of it, the Chinese devoting so much man power after the marines at Chosin instead of using the extra numbers to push the US Army right off the Koren Penninsula probably ranks right up there. They were so eager to be able to say they wiped out the Marines and instead got slaughtered by the thousands, and they only made it as far as Seoul.

 

[Toxick]

Keeps you busy so you don't have time to make the worst military blunder in 2000 years.

Tell that to General Custer.




And Napoleon.


And Hitler.


Asshat.

 

[scottrobts]

Tell that to General Custer.




And Napoleon.


And Hitler.


Asshat.

Custer really doesn't even come close, all he did was wipe out his command, the loss had no beairng on the outcome of the Indian Wars, in fact, probably ensured the Indians were treated worse. Funny thing was he was a good commander in the Civil war, one of the best the union had.

 

[Toxick]

Custer really doesn't even come close, all he did was wipe out his command,

And you don't consider that a military blunder?

 

[scottrobts]

not of the same caliber as the others listed, he was only a minor screw up by comparision

 

[Hessian]

Worst military blunder?

battle of the Somme.
what does it feel like to lose 60,000 troops on the first day of an offensive?

How about Gallipoli?

 

[Toxick]

not of the same caliber as the others listed, he was only a minor screw up by comparision

I reckon that depends on which yardstick you're using.

I was going by the scale of the error itself, not by the scale of the punitive damages.

 

[vraiblonde]

all he did was wipe out his command,

That's a rather significant blunder

 

[scottrobts]

That's a rather significant blunder

the subject we were going with was greatest military blunder in 2000 years

 

[vraiblonde]

the subject we were going with was greatest military blunder in 2000 years

Yes, and I think that when a military leader makes an assumption that gets his whole command killed, that's a pretty big blunder.