America at War

Of interesting note by watching the series on American Wars...

1. The original intention of the Civil War was to keep the Union together. Lincoln said so rather blatantly in the early part of the war - that he would not free a single slave if it meant keeping the Union together. But by 1863, when the war was being incredibly mismanaged by the North, Lincoln decided to make it about freeing the slaves to galvenize war support. The Confederate strategy was to make quick military victories to intimidate the North into suing for peace terms because they knew in the long run they wouldn't be able to win. After Lee won at Chancellorville and Fredericksberg many Union folks thought the war wasn't worth it, but Lincoln had resolve, used the slave issue to get the abolitionists on his side and take the moral upper hand, and eventually found a competent General (Grant) to lead the Union to victory.

2. A lot of dumbshits point to how we used to support Saddam and Osama to implicate that that we created these monsters. Well, think what the British must have thought of the Colonists...during the French and Indian War, the British and the Colonists fought together against the French and Indians and eventually defeated the French, pushing them out of the disputed territory and setting the stage for limited European conflict in the New World (it got refocused on Europe during the Napoleonic Wars). But without the French around, the Colonists decided they didn't need the British to protect them. Plus, the Colonists had some British-trained military experts (George Washington) and of course, everyone knows the story from there...the Brits tried to tax the colonists to pay for the French Indian war and the colonists responded by saying no and dumping British tea in the harbor. Not only that, when the British started to attack the Colonists, the Colonists adopted tactics they saw the Indian's use against them in the French - Indian campaign against the British. Clever.

3. The Plains Indian war. The longest war in early American history, it lasted for 12 years. The Plains Indian's were the only really formiddable Indian force because they knew how to use horses. They had captured some Spanish horses in Mexico in the 1680s, bred them and created a unique horsed-based Indian culture in the plains of North America, where they would hunt buffalo. They become one of the wealthiest Indian cultures because of their ability with horses and also proved difficult to defeat militarily. In fact, the only big Indian victory over the settlers was of course, Custer's Last Stand. Ironically, the victory caused the Indian supporters on the East Coast to be silenced and allowed the more genocidal forces to take control which led to the eventual wiping out of the Plains Indian population.

4. American involvement in WWI. What's interesting in WWI is that for the first few years America was VERY neutral. In hindsight, it's odd to think of not siding with the Allied powers, but there was significant support for the Germans in the German-American population and the Irish-American population (who hated the British). America war-profiteers sold arms to both sides, but it was the German subs who started attacking American ships headed towards England that led us to get involved on the Allied side. Hearing about WWI, it sounds like the stupidiest war on the history of the planet. Not unjust, just plain dumb.