 The ex-general Petraeus has weighed in with his expert opinion on today’s hot issues. “Robert E. Lee was a traitor,” he declares. This managed to get him a little news attention for the first time in a long while. After all, this is the general who botched occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, is an adulterer, and violated military security. Where did our General learn about Lee? I may be wrong, but I don’t think he learned this at West Point. We have here someone who has commanded American armies who is seriously ignorant of the complexities of history. That such a person has risen to the top of our military, I suggest, explains a lot about its performance in recent years. Our top leaders, military and civilian, are prime examples of the “Kevins” I wrote about in another post. People without any genuine achievement but who nevertheless have slithered up the promotion rope by stepping on others, ass kissing, and back-stabbing. I repeat, someone so flippantly and self-promotingly ignorant of the complexities of great historical events has no business in high office, much less commanding an army. Our Founding Fathers knew history well. If men like Churchill and DeGaulle had not been deeply versed in serious history they may not have done what they did and we might all be wearing swastikas. And lorded over by such opportunists as I have described, who flourish under any regime. Hitler failed in the long run because he viewed history in a distorted and rigid ideological lens. If George Bush the Lesser had known any history, would he have allowed his handlers to launch a war to conquer and reform the Middle East and Afghanistan? History seriously considered tells us usefully where we human beings have been over a long course and helps us to understand where we are and what to do. It does not provide perfect answers but it is helpful, a necessary form of wisdom for leaders when important things are at stake. The kinds of shallow views of the past held by the General and the mobs in the streets is one evidence of the sorry state the former democratic America manifests today.
3 Comments
Anthony Powell
8/9/2020 06:32:22 am
Dr Wilson....thanks for this excellent essay. Petraeus never defended his home state and country from foreign attack, as the honorable General Lee did. All Petraeus ever did was participate in attacking, invading and destroying a couple of countries about 7000 miles from America. Now he collects a lavish pension on the backs of people who actually work for a living. He needs to shut his mouth and go play golf with Bush and Cheney.
John Woodruff
8/9/2020 12:25:24 pm
In the movie Patton, we have the general as portrayed by George C. Scott uttering this line, "My God, I hate the 20th Century". I wonder what he'd have thought of the 21st? Thanks for this essay.
Tobacco Planter and a Coal Miner
8/9/2020 05:38:21 pm
The latest articles all have the theme of treason of late. Perhaps we could look at recruiting posters from the time? What do they say the war is about? Or perhaps we could look at a letter Sherman wrote; maybe we can use Uncle Billy's words against him? Leave a Reply. |