Well yeah, it saddens us all, because it means that the American experiment has been lost. Especially when you realize that our chances would be daunting, but perhaps not impossible. Certainly more daunting that our revolutionary war back in the 1700s though.
I know. I am a member of a military family that traces its lineage back to then.
‘Pod.
I am almost through the second volume of Washington Irving's "The Life of George Washington" (5 volumes). The last few pages I've read is where his badly defeated army, after the fall of Fort Washington due to General Greene's foolhardiness, is at the Delaware River that he is about to cross the first time. Most of the few thousand farmer soldiers retreated from their disheartening loss with no shoes, blankets, or tents in the month of December.
It was more daunting than we could ever imagine for the newly independent United States. He had to take on the most mighty superpower of his time. We ourselves are now the most mighty superpower and we have his example to guide us.