Mary Mostert
If we lose in Iraq, the death toll could be millions
By Mary Mostert
Note: I've been asked why I think millions could die if we lose in Iraq. I think that because millions died when we pulled out of Vietnam — and no weapons of mass destruction were used then. Official records show 2-3 million Cambodians were killed. To date, millions of Hmong, Laotian and Karen people are dead or unaccounted for. Some of them are merely still refugees. Thirty years later, apparently most Americans either have forgotten this, or never knew it since the media didn't cover it like it covered the 3000 American deaths in Iraq.
It amazes me how similar the just seated Congress' distrust of America's current Commander-in-Chief, George W. Bush, is to the distrust displayed by the Continental Congress towards another George, America's first Commander in Chief in 1776. Almost no history book tells that story, but the letters of George Washington to the Continental Congress clearly recorded what took place.
In June of 1775 the Continental Congress chose George Washington as commander in chief of a group of militias of about 20,000 men that would become the Continental Army but Congress remained in control of military decisions for another year. Shortly after the battles of Lexington and Concord, Washington took command on July 3, 1775. There were about 13,000 militia men gathered in Boston and they would soon face a well trained British army of 16,000 men headed by the most experienced general in Europe, William Howe. A week after taking command Washington described his army as "a mixed multitude of people under very little discipline, order or government." Protestants would not take orders from Maryland Catholics, for example, although later, on Long Island, it would be the sacrifice of Marylanders who would save Washington's mostly non-Catholic army.
Because the Continental Congress distrusted the military, they would not approve a "standing army" and insisted that enlistments be for only one year. By January 1776, four days after a large number of his men's enlistments ended and they had gone home, Washington wrote to Congress: "It is not in the pages of history to furnish a case like ours. To maintain a post within musket shot of the enemy for six months without powder, and at the same time to disband one army and recruit another."
In the Fall of 1775 Washington had sent Henry Knox, a bookseller who had read books about cannons, to check the condition of the 50 cannons Ethan Allen had captured when he seized Fort Ticonderoga in May 1775. Knox brought the cannons 200 miles, by sled, to Boston, arriving in late January 1776. Washington quickly placed them one night on Dorchester Hill and the next morning, a very surprised General Howe who was preparing to attack Boston was convinced he was facing a large, determined and well-armed force.
This led to Gen. Howe boarding the British ships in mid-March of 1776 and sailing off to New York Harbor. Washington and his army followed them by land, arriving in New York in mid-April, where he found most of the population supporting and trading with the British while wining and dining the British soldiers. In May, John Hancock, President of the Congress, summoned Washington to Philadelphia for a conference. Congress was deadlocked between those who wanted to fight for their liberty and those who wanted to negotiate peace at almost any price to keep King George III as their protector and king.
Washington advised Congress that it was useless to hope for any accommodation with Great Britain, reminding them that he was facing foreign mercenary troops that showed "unsparing hostility" and that a long war was inevitable. A few weeks later the Continental Congress passed the Declaration of Independence, and the war continued for seven more years.
Washington had only about 10,000 men by the time he was facing General Howe's 20,000 battle-trained soldiers and 7,000 German mercenaries on Long Island in August 1776. In the first major battle between the two armies, Washington lost approximately 20% of his men, 300 dead, 650 wounded and 1100 captured. However, on August 28th, 800 Pennsylvania men and 1300 from Massachusetts' Marblehead regiment arrived, nearly all of whom were fishermen and sailors. Had it not been for those experienced sailors the American Revolution would have ended then on Long Island. As the surrounded Americans were being ferried across the river by Massachusetts fisherman who rowed all night to evacuate them , almost every man in the Maryland Regiment led by Mordecai Gist was killed as they valiantly fought to keep the British from reaching the shore as the rest of the American army was ferried cross the river to Manhattan.
At this point, there were few in America and NONE in Europe who thought the Americans could unite and could defeat the British army. In October Washington received word from the New York Provincial Congress that local Tory sympathizers were cooperating with the enemy and intended to seize mountain passes to cut off communication between the army and those supplying the American army. Also, General Charles Lee was refusing to take Washington's orders and Congress had ordered Washington to defend forts along the Hudson River in spite of Washington telling them he could not successfully defend them with his weakened, shrinking and poorly supplied army .
As 1776 was drawing to a close, George Washington was faced with a situation remarkably similar to that now faced by George W. Bush — an arrogant Congress that wanted to make military decisions from the safety of Philadelphia and an unhappy and fearful public.
What WAS the solution? The two critical factors that saved our nation were (1) A brilliant military move devised by George Washington after Congress turned decision making over to him and fled because General Howe was moving towards Philadelphia intent on hanging them, and (2) A foreign friend that moved in with money, military equipment and training for the undisciplined and headstrong militiamen.
The brilliant military move took place on Christmas Eve of 1776 when George Washington and part of his army whose enlistments would end 6 days later crossed the ice-choked Delaware River and attacked surprised German mercenaries at Trenton. The foreign friend was King Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette who, after getting word that the seasoned 40th and 55th British Infantry regiments had surrendered to the Americans in Nassau Hall, Princeton and on the diplomatic urging of Benjamin Franklin, gave the Americans financial support, ships, weapons and needed military training.
A few years later King Louis XVI and Marie were beheaded in the name of "liberty" by French radicals who then outlawed Christianity, seized property belonging to churches and aristocrats and beheaded 17,000 French men, women and children, thereby creating conditions which led the French to turn to a new tyrant named Napoleon for security.
Following George W. Bush's speech announcing a stronger effort in Iraq, it appears there are some in Congress today who would do to him what the French did to King Louis XVI and his Queen. It might be well to remember at this point the words of philosopher George Santayana: "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
If we lose in Iraq the death toll could be millions, not a mere 17,000 dead.
© Mary Mostert
Note: I've been asked why I think millions could die if we lose in Iraq. I think that because millions died when we pulled out of Vietnam — and no weapons of mass destruction were used then. Official records show 2-3 million Cambodians were killed. To date, millions of Hmong, Laotian and Karen people are dead or unaccounted for. Some of them are merely still refugees. Thirty years later, apparently most Americans either have forgotten this, or never knew it since the media didn't cover it like it covered the 3000 American deaths in Iraq.
It amazes me how similar the just seated Congress' distrust of America's current Commander-in-Chief, George W. Bush, is to the distrust displayed by the Continental Congress towards another George, America's first Commander in Chief in 1776. Almost no history book tells that story, but the letters of George Washington to the Continental Congress clearly recorded what took place.
In June of 1775 the Continental Congress chose George Washington as commander in chief of a group of militias of about 20,000 men that would become the Continental Army but Congress remained in control of military decisions for another year. Shortly after the battles of Lexington and Concord, Washington took command on July 3, 1775. There were about 13,000 militia men gathered in Boston and they would soon face a well trained British army of 16,000 men headed by the most experienced general in Europe, William Howe. A week after taking command Washington described his army as "a mixed multitude of people under very little discipline, order or government." Protestants would not take orders from Maryland Catholics, for example, although later, on Long Island, it would be the sacrifice of Marylanders who would save Washington's mostly non-Catholic army.
Because the Continental Congress distrusted the military, they would not approve a "standing army" and insisted that enlistments be for only one year. By January 1776, four days after a large number of his men's enlistments ended and they had gone home, Washington wrote to Congress: "It is not in the pages of history to furnish a case like ours. To maintain a post within musket shot of the enemy for six months without powder, and at the same time to disband one army and recruit another."
In the Fall of 1775 Washington had sent Henry Knox, a bookseller who had read books about cannons, to check the condition of the 50 cannons Ethan Allen had captured when he seized Fort Ticonderoga in May 1775. Knox brought the cannons 200 miles, by sled, to Boston, arriving in late January 1776. Washington quickly placed them one night on Dorchester Hill and the next morning, a very surprised General Howe who was preparing to attack Boston was convinced he was facing a large, determined and well-armed force.
This led to Gen. Howe boarding the British ships in mid-March of 1776 and sailing off to New York Harbor. Washington and his army followed them by land, arriving in New York in mid-April, where he found most of the population supporting and trading with the British while wining and dining the British soldiers. In May, John Hancock, President of the Congress, summoned Washington to Philadelphia for a conference. Congress was deadlocked between those who wanted to fight for their liberty and those who wanted to negotiate peace at almost any price to keep King George III as their protector and king.
Washington advised Congress that it was useless to hope for any accommodation with Great Britain, reminding them that he was facing foreign mercenary troops that showed "unsparing hostility" and that a long war was inevitable. A few weeks later the Continental Congress passed the Declaration of Independence, and the war continued for seven more years.
Washington had only about 10,000 men by the time he was facing General Howe's 20,000 battle-trained soldiers and 7,000 German mercenaries on Long Island in August 1776. In the first major battle between the two armies, Washington lost approximately 20% of his men, 300 dead, 650 wounded and 1100 captured. However, on August 28th, 800 Pennsylvania men and 1300 from Massachusetts' Marblehead regiment arrived, nearly all of whom were fishermen and sailors. Had it not been for those experienced sailors the American Revolution would have ended then on Long Island. As the surrounded Americans were being ferried across the river by Massachusetts fisherman who rowed all night to evacuate them , almost every man in the Maryland Regiment led by Mordecai Gist was killed as they valiantly fought to keep the British from reaching the shore as the rest of the American army was ferried cross the river to Manhattan.
At this point, there were few in America and NONE in Europe who thought the Americans could unite and could defeat the British army. In October Washington received word from the New York Provincial Congress that local Tory sympathizers were cooperating with the enemy and intended to seize mountain passes to cut off communication between the army and those supplying the American army. Also, General Charles Lee was refusing to take Washington's orders and Congress had ordered Washington to defend forts along the Hudson River in spite of Washington telling them he could not successfully defend them with his weakened, shrinking and poorly supplied army .
As 1776 was drawing to a close, George Washington was faced with a situation remarkably similar to that now faced by George W. Bush — an arrogant Congress that wanted to make military decisions from the safety of Philadelphia and an unhappy and fearful public.
What WAS the solution? The two critical factors that saved our nation were (1) A brilliant military move devised by George Washington after Congress turned decision making over to him and fled because General Howe was moving towards Philadelphia intent on hanging them, and (2) A foreign friend that moved in with money, military equipment and training for the undisciplined and headstrong militiamen.
The brilliant military move took place on Christmas Eve of 1776 when George Washington and part of his army whose enlistments would end 6 days later crossed the ice-choked Delaware River and attacked surprised German mercenaries at Trenton. The foreign friend was King Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette who, after getting word that the seasoned 40th and 55th British Infantry regiments had surrendered to the Americans in Nassau Hall, Princeton and on the diplomatic urging of Benjamin Franklin, gave the Americans financial support, ships, weapons and needed military training.
A few years later King Louis XVI and Marie were beheaded in the name of "liberty" by French radicals who then outlawed Christianity, seized property belonging to churches and aristocrats and beheaded 17,000 French men, women and children, thereby creating conditions which led the French to turn to a new tyrant named Napoleon for security.
Following George W. Bush's speech announcing a stronger effort in Iraq, it appears there are some in Congress today who would do to him what the French did to King Louis XVI and his Queen. It might be well to remember at this point the words of philosopher George Santayana: "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
If we lose in Iraq the death toll could be millions, not a mere 17,000 dead.
© Mary Mostert
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