The George Washington example is not appropriate, because Sowell is comparing a start-up, ragtag army with a conservative base that was victorious under Reagan, Bush, & Bush until betrayed/misled by deceitful, liberal republicans.
He is comparing an army with no previous experience or power, a 1 or 2 on a scale of 10, with a political army that has vast previous experience and a power rating someplace around an 8. The question is “do you allow that power to degrade to a point that future victory is unlikely?”
The Dunkirk example isn’t appropriate because you are comparing a catastrophic battle position with a conservative battle position that is so vital and hopeful that the number of conservatives refusing to vote for Romney could have won it for him if he’d not been a liberal republican. The question here is “Do you withdraw from the field, lose power, and continue to alienate an entire Army group within your overall Army?”
The most crucial battle in the Civil War was Antietam. The South was ascendant after a string of victories, Robert E. Lee had pushed north, and another victory would have probably won the South the recognition of European powers. In that battle of Antietam, Lee won a tactical victory and McClellan a “strategic” one of such small consequence that Lincoln replaced him. Lincoln traded one weak general for another, Ambrose Burnside, who history records as a general with such lack of imagination that he never should have been promoted above Colonel. Burnside went from Antietam to a humiliating defeat at Fredericksburg.
The South was at its strongest, and Lee’s army, while small, could easily have been augmented by forces in the west in any continuing push north. It was a critical moment, because Lee returned to Virginia and continued retreats into Virginia simply degraded the South’s fighting ability over time until they were overpowered as the North finally found its fighting legs and its economic power began to bear down.
Recognizing the tipping point in your power is crucial. If you refuse to fight and allow your power to degrade below that tipping point, then you have doomed yourself to defeat.
We are in no Dunkirk at the moment. Social conservative power could have won the last election. It could easily win the mid-terms of 2014, but NOT with quisling liberals pretending to be conservatives. These traitors side with the enemy to promote liberalism at enough critical points that a rational conservative must use Occam’s Razor:
“They are against us because they are not on our side.”
I do think that Sowell has wandered off the reservation with this kind of stuff, he seems to be going bi-polar, or some kind of schizophrenic lately. I hope this phase doesn't last long. His contributions have been stellar in the past.
Thank you so much for all your insights, dear brother in Christ!
There is also the view that the first battles could have ended the war immediately had the confederate forces pursued the union army into Washington and captured them while taking the Capitol.
In the battle of Bull Run there was a chance for the confederacy to take Washington and Lincoln, and demand surrender but the decision was made to let the union army run back across the Potomac; it was thought they had learned their lesson and wouldn’t be back.
The lesson is to pursue the enemy to total defeat without delay.
We see this lesson unlearned today in many recent military campaigns. In the first Iraq war there was an opportunity to go to Baghdad and take Saddam Hussein immediately and put him on trial for the atrocities committed in Kuwait. Limited war seems always to lead to another war later as the defeated regroup and survive to fight another day.