Throw-in-the-towel remarks common in past U.S. wars

The Mercury News ^ | Dec. 15, 2005 | Victor Davis Hanson

[neverdem]

``I implore you to inaugurate or invite proposals for peace forthwith. And in case peace cannot now be made, consent to an armistice for one year.''

What unpopular war was that?

And does the following gloom about American military prospects also sound familiar?: ``Unless some positive and immediate action is taken, hope for success cannot be justified. . . . Final destruction can reasonably be contemplated.''

The first throw-in-the-towel remark, however, did not come from Howard Dean or John Murtha -- but from Horace Greeley about the Civil War during the depressing summer of 1864. And the second quote is Douglas MacArthur's bleak assessment not long after the Chinese Red Army crossed the Yalu River in the autumn of 1950.

Similar despair could be recalled from the winter of 1776, the Imperial German offensive of March 1918 or the early months of 1942 after Pearl Harbor and the Allies' loss of the Philippines and Singapore.

America has not fought a war when at some point the news from the battlefield did not evoke a frenzy of recriminations both abroad and at home.

After the carnage of the Wilderness, Cold Harbor and Petersburg in 1864, the conventional wisdom about the Civil War was that the bumbling Abraham Lincoln could never win re-election. Instead, all summer the veteran Gen. George McClellan assured the Northern populace that there was no hope of military victory.

In November 1950, after Americans were sent scurrying southward by the Chinese, most pundits wrote off Korea as lost -- before the unexpected counteroffensives of Gen. Matthew Ridgeway saved the Seoul government by the next spring.

We can derive three historical lessons that are relevant to our present finger-pointing over Iraq.

First, hysteria arises at home in almost all our wars. We almost forgot that after the recent miraculous...

[stumpy]

does anyone care? I personally do not care how many of my enemies die, only that I win. We are at war, it is a world war I want all of my enemies to die so that my children and grandchildren shall live. Were I not so old and crippled up, I'd go back to war. Vietnam-'67-68

[karnage]

Sorry, I didn't make my question clear. I was wondering about civilians, not enemy combatants.

[DieHard the Hunter]

> How many Iraqis have died in this war? Does anyone know?

I don't know, but I hope these have been minimal. I also don't know how many "Insurgents" have been killed but I hope it has been many times the number of American and allied casualties.

Iraq's vote this past week has been bought at a heavy price, one that Iraqis have not had to bear alone. And one that they could not have afforded to pay, without American and allied intervention.

I for one hope they make the most of their opportunity. I wish them good things for their Future: a government free of tyrants, possibly a secular Democracy like Turkey has. But in any event a good, stable democratic government with a wealthy, prosperous economy and an empowered, enfranchised citizenry, all operating under a Constitution.

If this be achieved, then it was worth it.

[karnage]

I'm witchoo!