rebuttal to: what would sherman do?
by Jabulani Leffall
Published: January 9, 2008
Cynthia Flores’ original article: “what would sherman do?“
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We can all agree that General William Tecumseh Sherman would be far better than the Miami Dolphins offensive coordinator in executing a war and probably a football game, too. But that’s about where the logic of comparing Iraq to the Civil War or the Civil War to modern times ends.
Born mostly out of a hubris that makes narcissism seem like suicidal depression, War hawks are whimsical individuals who love to invoke the Civil War, the American Revolution and World Wars one and two in lauding America’s military might. It’s called saber rattling.
But when dealing with mostly religious zealots who fight in pajamas and sandals, strap bombs to their backs and serve you explosives with your Chai Latte, saber rattling is an inevitably futile pursuit.
This is what the so-called military “surge” in Iraq is - saber rattling at its worst and most dangerous. Who does saber rattling? Well, most of the time it’s people who never draw their swords, except maybe to point young soldiers in the direction of blood, entrails, death, horror and post traumatic stress syndrome, to name a few things.
Neo-conservatives, President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and fall guy Donald Rumsfeld are the biggest saber rattlers of them all. In prosecuting a branded conflict and subsequent surge that should win a marketing award, these folks are responsible for almost 4,000 deaths of American soldiers and countless civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Indeed the closest these people have ever been to a gun is Dick Cheney shooting his friend in the face. Most of these war hawks have never served in a battle and in this way are kind of like Gangsta Rappers from Connecticut. Sure the beats may sound nice, the talk is tough but there is absolutely no authenticity.
Now back to General Sherman, a man who made Atlanta howl, a man whose epic march to the sea dealt a crushing blow to the Confederacy. Burning cities to ashes, looting, cannons flying, rockets red glare, bombs bursting in air, the whole nine. Uh yeah, here’s the thing though: the Civil War was fought to preserve the union after a whole region secedeed from the United States over states’ rights, which included the privilege of owning other human beings.
Now, maybe my Internet connection isn’t working, but did Saddam Hussein secede from America over slavery? No, that’s right, we were looking for poison gasses and missiles over there, some of which we gave him in the 1980s , and then we hanged him and kicked off a civil war between religious factions when we couldn’t find the weapons.
In theory, it’s really cool, to talk about making “Al-Qaeda howl.” It seems honorable to give past warriors modern applications. But this is a war on terror, which like the war on drugs, is more of a pitch phrase that looks good in block letters but isn’t worth dying for.
As for General Sherman, he spent the rest of his career, after the Civil War, helping the American government displace and slaughter Native Americans - slightly better than the Miami Dolphins but worse than anything a human being should be doing.
I’ll let the general speak for himself. Here’s what he said in May of 1865, after the Confederate surrender:
“I confess, without shame, that I am sick and tired of fighting - its glory is all moonshine; even success, the most brilliant, is over dead and mangled bodies, with the anguish and lamentations of distant families, appealing to me for sons, husbands, and fathers … it is only those who have never heard a shot, never heard the shriek and groans of the wounded and lacerated … that cry aloud for more blood, more vengeance, more desolation.”
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Read Cynthia Flores’ original article: “what would sherman do?“
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