The Revolutionary War Wasn't Necessary

A Treatise on American Aggression Throughout its History as a Nation

(also, a reference to today's circumstances as a nation, and to this holiday)

The colonies did not enjoy the best of all worlds in the late 1700s, but did the colonists have to wage war? Was that the viable solution? Was war the answer? Was this not an impertinent and irresponsible act against a stable government? Was the British Empire that evil? Didn't they provide stability and a systematic form of rule? Couldn't they have negotiated a better solution by peaceable means?

Not all the colonists were of English origin, but couldn't the Dutch and the others suffer this formality under a benign monarchy? Was the British king that despotic?

The French and Indian War of an earlier generation had kept the Franks at bay, as well many of the savage tribes of natives across the eastern seabord  and into the continental interior. Hadn't there been enough war and brutality?

Sure, many of the royal taxes and tarriffs were unfairly meted out by Great Britain to the thirteen colonies and its subjects, but was it worth fighting about? Bloodshed for reasons of money?

Many colonists were true Loyalists and Tories, like some of my own Clinch ancestors in Canada, who were members of  His Majesty's Loyal conscripts.

Colonials from New Hampshire to Georgia could be found opposed to this unneccessarily bloody "revolution". Violence was not a popular option, proved time and again during the actual war, year after year. Even some virulently opposed to the Crown disdained the war!

Really, war? And then it dragged out for too many years, starting in 1775 all the way into the early 1780s...

Bring our boys home! The fathers and sons drafted and volunteering for battle needed to work the homestead rather than spend a freezing winter in Pennsylvania with that alleged general George of Virginia. And end up getting killed and maimed for life. For what? Send the troops home! It lasted too long.

What a tragedy this war was! Thousands dead, for what?

OK, a new system of government. No more kings.

But was it worth it?

It only lead to the next war a generation later, the War of 1812.

And that would not have been an issue if the original revolution had not put us at odds with the European power that had virtually provided the United States with its provident way of life in the first place.

What was this war good for, but to make a Tennessee volunteer a household name and put him in the White House?

Andrew Jackson capitalized from a bloody war to spring into the top command of the land. From another unnecessary war. Blood on our hands.

And then came the Mexican-American War. Over what?

Texas? Texas was it's own place, let them worry about their own affairs! Mexico or United States, or just stay a sovereign Texas! Why fight about it?

What did the US gain from this conflict? Why sacrifice our lives and honor over land? Money? Such greed and selfishness.

Well, the West Coast became a fruitful acquisition, but at the cost of the blood of our men and that of the vanquished foes?

And then came the greatest unneccessay conflict we could imagine: the North-South travesty.

So what if half of the states divided the Union and maintained their old way of life! Slavery and human bondage?

Worth fighting about? We lost over a half million souls trying to resolve the issue of "one nation",  the Union following the capricious whims of Honest Abe in the District of Columbia. That was a slave region, to boot!

How hypocritical this country could be! He didn't even really care about emancipating the slaves anyway, until it became politically convenient. Honest Abe, indeed.

Which leads us to the Spanish-American War. It would seem the United States took lesson from its former ruler, the United Kingdom. We now have a new Empire, ladies and gentleman!

Goodbye, Spanish Empire, hello USA!

And more blood spilt, for what? A few more islands in the sea, and more naval superiority, a strangle hold on the world as the British had so long enjoyed?

Now the picture has turned full circle! Who was the worldwide empire now? Greed, greed, greed.

And then our interference in Europe in the "War to End All Wars". Yeah, right.

A lot of good that did us.  We lost hundreds and thousands every month that our dough boys were "over there". It was only a couple of years, but we lost more American soldiers in World War I than the Revolution, 1812, Mexican and Spanish Wars combined. And for what?

And, yes, for what reason? To incite the Germans into revenge a generation later so that we could lose even more men?

World War II was not just a bloody war in Europe, but we fought on the other side of the world against Japan as well.

Over 400,000 troops lost between both theatres!

Why can't other nations leave us out of things? Why do we have to wage war to solve our problems? Why do we have to be the the enforcer of freedom worldwide?

Why are they US problems in the first place?

Can't we leave good enough alone?

Let the other countries of the world worry about their own problems! So Japan would rule half the world, so they bombed our ships in Hawaii... The Hawaiian islands wouldn't even be an issue if we weren't such an empire in the first place.

All because of unnecessary wars...Unwanton violence and pure barbarity at the cost of peaceful dialogue. Can we not negotiate peace and stability through diplomatic means?

Korea? So what if the South Koreans wanted to be democratic?

We lost 40,000 men in another unnecessary conflict. And we are still there in the 21st century? All our tax money shelled out at the DMZ of the 38th parallel of a peninsula we have no business being in? When there are threats to our interests in other parts of the globe?

And Vietnam? We all know what a universal blunder and waste of life this was.

H0 Chi Minh was as benevolent ruler as King George III of yesteryear from the UK, right?

What did it prove? We lose face to the world while losing another 60,000 GIs and officers, plus the uncounted psycholgical casualties.

And we lost Democratic South Vietnam. They all fell under our vaunted foe of Communism, under the same autocratic system of the USSR, China and Cuba...

So unnecessary.

Liberate Kuwait? Why? Oil? Gas prices? Another 400 troops lost. Like the hundreds of Marines lost in Lebanon in 1983.

And then it leads to our current unecessary conflicts, with no end in sight.

Afghanistan and Iraq. Just more world empire attempts and endless greed for natural resources and enriching the wealthy elite oil company owners.

When will we ever learn?

So unnecessary! All this human loss and toil!

Like me joining the National Guard last year. I have college degrees. I can make a living in a number of comfortable lifestyles.

Am I just another greedy American? Do I want world conquest, like former US patriots of the past, bloodshed for the simple reason of human avarice and lust?

Don't I care about peace, dialogue, diplomacy?

What legacy am I leaving my children, now ages 7, 4, 2 and 7 months?

Am I the protypical American fighter, seeking blood and war for selfish and unnecessary reasons?

May it ever be so.

Happy Fourth of July, all.

2008.

Freedom is not free.

And sacrifice is required to enjoy our peace. At times, it requires hard decisons, tough commitments, and unfortunately the supreme sacrifice. And mistakes are made, without a doubt.

But the quest for peace and justice is not.

I hope you can read between the lines and sense the reality and the nobility of our past and present.

Errors in judgment have been made by our great land and its leadership for the past 232 years, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Not then, and not now.

God bless the USA and all our friends, across the planet at present and across the centuries.

And to our foes: consider well whom you try to challenge, and for what purpose.

Because I think that this country does. At least, this citizen does. The War of Independence is still being waged. And we will not back down from defending our freedom, our liberty, our nation, our families.

So, was the American Revolution necessary? Not necessarily, but it was right.

Was it necessary for me to join the military in 2007 at age 36? No, but I believe it was right.

And we hope to make peace to our dying day.

Peace.

 Clinch