America Lost

As we consider the prospect of financial collapse and the possibility of an ensuing depression; as our country divest itself of the fine robes of liberty to lace up the black boots of fascism and the riot gear of a police state, I sadly consider the example left by our forefathers. The revolutionary soldiers’ most feared enemy was not the British redcoat; it was the "Devil Soldier" Hessian. They were fabled to be so savage as to eat their prisoners. This reputation was not entirely without merit. The Hessians were German mercenaries that were conscripted by the British to fight the rebels in America. They were the Blackwater of their day. Consider that the Americans were a ragtag group of poorly clothed, poorly fed, poorly armed and poorly trained farmers, fighting a well trained, armed, clothed, fed and paid army. The revolutionary army had suffered great losses at their hands. When Hessians were captured, they had been so demonized that the revolutionary soldiers were at first inclined to torture them and treat them as subhuman. General Washington reminded the young patriots of the ideas they were fighting for. He reasoned that if we descend into barbarity we invalidate the very noble truths we fight for. In other words: we have already lost, even if we win the war. He also suggested that any soldier guilty of torturing prisoners should be tried and possibly even put to death. The Hessians were treated with such regard and respect that they developed respect and admiration for the Americans. The Americans fed them and sheltered them. The prisoners were even taken in by local townspeople and treated more as guests than prisoners. As a result, many Hessians joined the revolutionary army and fought against the British; others married and settled in America. In the war of hearts and minds, we won, not because of superior resources but because of superior ideas, superior virtue and superior humanity.

Some people predict the fall of America but it is abundantly clear that we are already falling if not already fallen. We are not a “light on a hill”. The core values and virtues that have made America a great country have been confused with our economic and military power, if not traded for them in wholesale. In a war to win hearts and minds, we are almost vanquished and bankrupt. I love America! I love the principles that shaped our young country. They were so powerful that even the faint remnant of them in our courts could grow liberty and justice anew. This however will require us to stand up and refuse to allow either a citizen or an enemy be arrested with out due process of law; generals and privates that refuse to allow the torture of prisoners; politicians that refuse to allow agencies or branches within the government to operate outside the law or the will of the people and congressmen and women, senators and representatives that refuse to pass legislation that hijacks the American people or the values we hold dear. It will require people of conscience to demand that our representative government actually represent the conscience of the people rather than just our perceived “best interest” or the overbearing interest of corporations and lobbies. We must remember that the greatness of America is in the ideas of farmers. When we had no standing army, no great wealth and little global influence, we were indeed a light on a hill and people around the world looked to us and flocked to us because of the ideas we represented. If we have lost those; we have already lost everything! The virtue of a nation is not proven in its treatment of friends but rather by its treatment of enemies.