Jimmy Carter: Like Iraq The Revolutionary War Was Unnecessary!

Harball 10/18/04

[notkerry]

MATTHEWS: Let me ask you the question about—this is going to cause some trouble with people—but as an historian now and studying the Revolutionary War as it was fought out in the South in those last years of the War, insurgency against a powerful British force, do you see any parallels between the fighting that we did on our side and the fighting that is going on in Iraq today?

CARTER: Well, one parallel is that the Revolutionary War, more than any other war up until recently, has been the most bloody war we‘ve fought. I think another parallel is that in some ways the Revolutionary War could have been avoided. It was an unnecessary war.

Had the British Parliament been a little more sensitive to the colonial‘s really legitimate complaints and requests the war could have been avoided completely, and of course now we would have been a free country now as is Canada and India and Australia, having gotten our independence in a nonviolent way.

I think in many ways the British were very misled in going to war against America and in trying to enforce their will on people who were quite different from them at the time.

For Transcript See http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6281085/

[usmcobra]

Is it possible that the wrong Carter was elected president?

That maybe Billy wasn't the real idiot brother we all thought he was....

[daler]

What a country.

Even the most moronic moron can be elected president.

And was.

[Pikachu_Dad]

It's a common belief that the English behavior that caused our revolution was incredibly stupid. stupid? No, they were being run by a crazy king.

[dalereed]

"Um, more Americans died in the Civil War than any other war"

Apparently Jimmy thinks that they all died 10,000 times so
the number exceeded WW2!

[mafree]

Somebody please hit me for voting for this clown!

[george76]

Billy Carter had some dealings with Omar Khaddafi in Libya.

Bob Hope had a line that "the main difference between Jimmy Carter and his brother was that Billy had a foreign policy."

[bray]

the Revolutionary War, more than any other war up until recently, has been the most bloody war we‘ve fought.

How did this clown graduate Annapolis? Bloodiest next to WWI, WWII, Civil War, Mexican Wars, Indian Wars, Korean War and Vietnam. We lost 4400 in the Revolutionary War. What a Maroon.

You suppose he would rather be under the other King George??

Pray For W and Our Freedom Fighters

[Pikachu_Dad]

And three, the fact that a former POTUS and COMMANDER-IN-FREAKING-CHIEF of the US Armed forces is making this statement is the element which really takes it to the "messed up" level... Yep. So is Ramsey Clark - another idiot Liberal.

[george76]

Jimmah did accomplished one thing.

He helped get Reagan elected for eight years .

[dalereed]

"could have been prevented by slightly more enlightened leadership in Britain"

Besides Jimmy, what whack job in this country would have wanted to prevent it.

[donmeaker]

Canada won their independence on the beaches of Normandy. They sure did fight for it.

The Australians won theirs during the Boer War, due to mistreatment of their soldiers by the British.

The British Navy continued to impress US sailors from merchant ships until after the Treaty of Ghent, we had similar problems even after our independence. That treaty turned most of the problems that led to the war over to separate commissions. It was the Battle of New Orleans that sealed US independence. British soldiers, veterans of the wars against Napoleon Buonaparte, were decisively defeated by free Americans.

If Andrew Jackson had not led his men to that victory, the commissions established at Ghent would have been tools of negotiations to remove land from the US, and to organize the transfer of the US Merchant Marine to the British.

The battle of New Orleans showed that British arrogance could not stand against free men. The commissions recognized the reality of US power on the high seas, and in the American west.

[george76]

[RobbyS]

Had the British Parliament been a little more sensitive to the colonial‘s really legitimate complaints and requests the war could have been avoided completely, and of course now we would have been a free country now as is Canada and India and Australia, having gotten our independence in a nonviolent way.

And what, dear Jimmy, were the Colonists "legitimate complaints?" And why do you think they cared a figg? Why should we have had more rights than, say the Irish? Were they listening to the Irish?

[MikefromOhio]

CARTER: Well, one parallel is that the Revolutionary War, more than any other war up until recently, has been the most bloody war we‘ve fought. I think another parallel is that in some ways the Revolutionary War could have been avoided. It was an unnecessary war.

Hell we lost more than the nearly 2600 that have died in Iraq in ONE BATTLE in World War 2 (Battle of the Bulge) and that was a little over 3 weeks long.

The Union and the Confederate forces lost more than that in about 2 hours on the fields at Gettysburg (3rd day, Picketts charge) and had lost greater than 2600 the day before as well (Little Round Top, Wheat Field, Peach Orchard). And let's not talk about the disasters at Cold Harbor, Fredericksburg and the "Mule Shoe".

I wasn't alive for 99% of Carter's Presidency (born in August of 1980) but this guy is, at the very least dishonest and likely more than a little ignorant of what is going on.

[Pharmboy]

Read some history. You have no idea what you are talking about.

[xzins]

the Revolutionary War, more than any other war up until recently, has been the most bloody war we‘ve fought.

I don't think so.

The armies were generally under 10,000 if memory serves correctly.

Someone would have to prove this to me. I'm not sure I'd accept "percentage of the population" as a legitimate response.

[george76]

Sometimes when I look at my children I say to myself, "Lillian, you should have stayed a virgin."

 

http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/20935.html

[reagan_fanatic]

Someone needs to wrap this loon in cotton and throw him in a rubber room before he hurts someone.

[george76]

The total number of casualties (dead and wounded) in the Revolutionary War was about 10,000 (4,400 deaths).

 

The 1790 Census (the first Census) recorded about 3.9 million Americans. So slightly more than 0.2 percent of the population was killed or wounded in the Revolution. If 16 percent of the population were casualties, that would mean that the population at the time of the Revolution could have only been about 63,000 or so. Impossible for the population to grow from 63,000 to just under 4 million in just over a decade.

In contrast, just under 1 million people (Union and Confederate) were casualties of the Civil War. The US population then was about 34 million. So about three percent of the population was killed or wounded in that conflict, an increase of an order of magnitude over the percentages for the American Revolution.

Source

hat tip to CFC__VRWC

The total number of casualties (dead and wounded) in the Revolutionary War was about 10,000 (4,400 deaths).

The 1790 Census (the first Census) recorded about 3.9 million Americans. So slightly more than 0.2 percent of the population was killed or wounded in the Revolution. If 16 percent of the population were casualties, that would mean that the population at the time of the Revolution could have only been about 63,000 or so. Impossible for the population to grow from 63,000 to just under 4 million in just over a decade.

[Artemis Webb]

"How in the hell did this person get elected to be President.. What a dolt!."

I have to confess that when I was 16 years old, too young and too naive to vote, that I supported Carter over Ford in the 1976 Election.

It is both by luck of birth and the Grace of God that I can tell people that my first actual Presidential vote was for Ronald Reagan...whew !