America's true blue -- then and now

By Aussiegirl

John B. Dwyer has an inspiring op-ed in the Washington Times today on staying the course in Iraq. His article echoes the book I'm currently reading, David McCullough's "1776". If you're wondering what to buy someone for Christmas you won't go wrong with this book -- and if you're lucky, they'll let you read it after they are finished. A riveting read, the book vividly portrays the American troops -- ordinary people, without uniforms, without equipment, ill clad, ill housed, not even paid for the most part, standing up against the uniformed, crack troops of the English. And you can't help but think about our own situation when you read about how discouraged even Washington was at times -- yet they understood what was at stake and never gave up. In the end it made all the difference.

Remaining true blue in Iraq�-�Editorials/Op-Ed�-�The Washington Times, America's Newspaper

And so the debate continues. Should U.S. forces pull out of Iraq? It has gone from a question of when to one of how. Quickly, or in a staged manner? Doesn't matter, just bring them home, sooner the better.

Now think about it; American troops have only been in Iraq for a relatively short period of time. As President Bush noted in a recent speech: "By any standard or precedent of history, Iraq has made incredible political progress ? from tyranny, to liberation, to national elections, to the writing of a constitution, in the space of two-and-a-half years."

Two-and-a-half years into our Civil War, Fredericksburg was over and Chancellorsville was in the offing; into World War II, GIs were fighting in Normandy hedgerows and combat in the Marianas. In both cases, hard-won victories had not yet been achieved, but they would be. Now, a mere two-and-a-half years into Operation Iraqi Freedom, the central theater for the global war on terror, calls for retreat are being heard. They must not be heeded.

At this time 222 years ago, British troops were finally departing American soil after forces under Cornwallis were defeated at Yorktown in 1781. The war for our independence lasted six years, marked by initial defeats and retreats. What if those volunteers and regular Continental Army forces, the "true blues," hadn't persevered?

A sizeable British army under Gen. Clinton remained in New York until late 1783. After it set sail, American troops marched through the city. As Richard M. Ketchum tells us in his excellent book "Victory At Yorktown": "A New Yorker, a woman used to seeing British troops in their perfect uniforms, was astonished seeing the victorious Americans, 'ill clad and weather-beaten, (they) made a forlorn appearance; but they were our troops and as I looked at them and thought upon all they had done and suffered for us, my heart and eyes were full, and I admired and gloried in them the more.' " Those men were the "one-third true blue," as John Adams described the percentage of Americans who fought for and gained our independence. The rest were "the Tories and the timid."