Betraying Our History

By Alan Caruba

June 6, 1944 is a significant day in American history; the day that the Normandy invasion began, leading to the defeat of Nazi Germany. I was seven years old at the time and blithely ignorant of it.

Though it occurred 67 years ago, I am sure it is regarded as “ancient history” to the current generation in our nation’s public schools. In point of fact, the American Civil War had ended just 72 years before I was born, easily the lifetime of a man born at the end of that war or even one who had served in it.

June 6, 1944 marks D-Day and is the subject of many books and films, but many wars were being fought on the same day in different years.

In 1813, U.S. forces suffered a defeat by the British at the Battle of Stoney Creek in what is now called the War of 1812.

In 1862, during the Civil War, the Battle of Memphis was fought and the Union captured the city.

In 1918, during World War One, it marks the day the Battle of Belleau Wood resulted in the worst single day’s casualties for the U.S. Marine Corps.

In 1942, during World War Two, the Battle of Midway took place, turning the tide of war against the Japanese as U.S. dive bombers sunk a cruiser and four carriers in the Pacific theatre.

Like every single day of the year, a litany of battles and wars fills the history books and on any single day—like June 6, 1944—the lives of people and nations are changed forever in the ancient battle between good and evil.

It is understandable that children should be ignorant of history until they have been taught its highlights in school, but what are they being taught these days?

Most history books represent a national curriculum because what they include is determined by statewide purchases in Texas, California, and Florida. They account for thirty percent of the K-12 market.

In 2000, at the beginning of the decade, a study by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation involving 1,000 teenagers nationwide found that:

• 22% could not name the country from which the United States declared its independence!

• 17% did not know there were 13 original colonies.

• 15% did not know the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.

• 24% did not know who fought in the Civil War and 13% thought it was between the U.S. and Great Britain.

• 19% could not identify the three branches of the U.S. government.

• 31% did not know who wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

The questions asked in the survey represented a fourth grade-level test for 8-9 year-olds, but this level of ignorance must also be seen against a larger figure. By the time it was administered, the U.S. had spent more than $125 billion on education over the previous twenty-five years. During that time SAT scores had dropped 37 points.

Is it little wonder that, in May 2011, the Bill of Rights Institute issued a call for support of civic education based on the discouraging results from the most recent National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP)?

The NAEP had found that fewer high school students reported being taught about the Constitution than in previous years. Only 67% reported studying the Constitution in 2010, down from 72% in 2006. “This leaves nearly a third of American students with no exposure to the Constitution, and 40% of those students are a voting age.”

So, yes, we should pause and recall the courage of those men who stormed the beaches of Normandy and we should keep in mind that it is not “ancient history.” Though that generation of soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines is passing from the scene, some still live. Some veterans of the Civil War were still alive when I was born.

A nation has to have a collective memory of the events that shaped it and a collective knowledge of its most important, essential documents. If the statistics about more recent generations passing through our schools are any indication, they do not.

That is an act of betrayal. I can’t prove that it is deliberate, but it surely does not bode well for a nation so poorly led by its elected representatives since June 6, 1944 that it constitutes an insult to the sacrifices and acts of valor that day represents.

© Alan Caruba, 2011

More about → Betraying Our History

Football (and War) is about Winning

By Alan Caruba

The film, “Patton”, opens with George C. Scott giving an abbreviated version of General George Patton’s actual speech to the men of the Third Army on the eve of D-Day.

Today’s wars apparently require a different kind of general; one who gets combat ribbons for testifying before Congress and giving press conferences. They could win wars if the pukes in Washington would let them annihilate the enemy.

Patton’s actual speech was laced with profanity of the kind any man who has spent time in the Army or other branches of the service understood. Patton began by saying “Americans love to fight, traditionally. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle.”

“When you, here, every one of you, were kids, you all admired the champion marble player, the fastest runner, the toughest boxer, the big league ball players, and the All-American football players. Americans will not tolerate a loser. Americans despise cowards.”

The late comedian George Carlin had a routine in which he compared baseball to football. In baseball, he said, you play “in a park.” In football, you play in a stadium “on a grid.” Carlin knew that football is as much about war as it is about winning. The very image of a football player is a large, intimidating man clad in body armor.

The Superbowl is a clash of titans, men who have fought for every inch and every point until the whistle blows and the game is ended. We don’t go to the games or tune in on television to watch women play football.

We don’t want women analyzing the game afterward. We don’t even like seeing them interview the players on the sidelines. We do like the cheerleaders in their skimpy outfits. That’s the only place for a woman anywhere near the field.

Vietnam War veterans will tell you they were winning in the field and they were. The problem was that we had been in Vietnam for seven years by the time the politicians, yielding to a weary public, pulled the plug.

Fifty thousand-plus lives were lost, mostly due to a lack of resolve. Out of Vietnam came the doctrine enunciated by Colin Powell who had fought there and rose to be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. He said America must only go to war with overwhelming numbers and force.

That was applied in the first Iraqi war (1990-91) called Desert Storm and it worked. George H.W. Bush, probably because of pressure from Middle Eastern allies, stopped well short of going into Baghdad. It was left to George W. Bush to do, aided by our British and Canadian allies.

On March 20, 2003, Operation Iraqi Freedom commenced. U.S. forces arrived in Baghdad with too few troops to control the crowds and with no plan beyond finding Saddam Hussein. What followed was yet another long, meandering war without an end date though combat has ended.

This has been repeated in Afghanistan. How long have we been there? Can anyone remember? Have we “won”? Is it, by any definition winnable?

Throughout the 2008 campaign, Obama, carped about Iraq and called Afghanistan the real war. As president he increased the number of troops in Afghanistan and it is still a stalemate.

We have troops in Korea, in Japan, in Germany. Even when we “win” we never leave. When not killing the enemy, we build schools and clinics. For this we get little thanks and no respect.

“Americans play to win all of the time,” said Patton. Well, we used to. Our victories since the end of World War Two have ended in stalemates. It’s not that we lack the capacity to win decisively and impose our will on our enemies; it’s that we lack the will to do so.

Unlike the Superbowl where millions tuned in to watch, I doubt you have seen any coverage of the war in Afghanistan in a long time. After a year, the Iraqis have managed to cobble together something they call a government.

We have two carrier groups parked off the coast of Iran and the Iranians have recently announced they are going to put some warships through the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean off the coast of Israel.

“Sure we want to go home,” Patton told his men. “We want this war over with. The quickest way to get it over with is to go get the bastards that started it.”

Good advice then. Good advice now.

© Alan Caruba, 2011

More about → Football (and War) is about Winning