See, you posted: "The British Museum just recently held a survey to find out who the Brits considered their greatest foe." It wasn't the British Museum, was it? No, it was the British Army Museum, you NOW say. Whatever that is. There's a difference, though, from The British Museum.
Now, let's turn to the Chicago Tribune.
tinyurl.com/6qcyk6j and return to Wild.
1. "Would an institution such as the British Army Museum engage in a moranic exercise?" The Imperial War Museum probably wouldn't, but I've never heard of the Army Museum.*
2. "Washington fractured the Empire...." No, he didn't. The Empire became stronger. We only won because of endurance and France.
3. "...Collins the Union." Hardly. The exhausted Brits could have unleashed their military against the Irish big time, as we could have against the Indians, and slaughtered them all. There was no enthusiasm in either case to do so, testimony to powers other than Sitting Bull and Collins.
4. "Noteable achievements against a world power.They succeeded where Napoleon.,the Kaiser and Hitler failed." Really? When did Napoleon, Kaiser Bill, and Hitler launch independence movements against occupying Britain?
5. "Britian went broke paying on the nail for every item of equipment it bought from Uncle Sam and only when all reserves were exhausted did lend lease kick in." Fascinating. Setting aside the fact Britain was broke by the end of the First World War and could not and did not pay for everything, Lend Lease was decades later.
6. "De Velara went to the German Embassy and signed a book of condolences on the death of Hitler. The US sent a representative to "25 million man"Uncle Joe's lying in state to kiss his cold festering arse.Compare and contrast." The Soviet Union was our WWII ally.
7. "You can only judge the issue of Irish neutrality [and indeed US neutrality] from a 1939 perspective." Really?
8. "The tormoil in the Europe of 1939 was a big power knock about.Dictatorships versus Empires.Russia allied to Germany then to Britian,Czechs handed over to Germany,likewise Austria,France throws in the towel and aligns with axis powers.All European Minor powers remain neutral until attacked." Okay.
9. "We had fought a civil war only 18 years prior to the outbreak of war in Europe.There was a real danger that entry into the war on the side of a State still in occupation of part of our country would trigger another civil war." The street gangs and petty sectionalism that so denotes Irish history. You keep trotting out the Civil War as if it were, somehow, comparable in proportion to ours. It wasn't anything but sustained police action. People switched sides a lot, of course.
Ireland was dependent upon Britain because Hitler would have enslaved it, being right next door, had Britain collapsed. Knowing that, many Irish enlisted. De Valera was interested in remaining in power, and he was one whose role in the Civil War, and Collins' death, is entertaining.
America was not in direct danger, it thought, separated by an ocean. FDR worked hard to get us into that war, for which I honor him.
10. "Can't argue with the success of the colonists just wonder about the Sioux,the Maori,Zulu,Aborigines." Wonder what?
"No other Empire's colonial exploits improved the world as muchThey developed systems to exploit their conquests.If the infrastructure of a subject nation was developed,if basic education was established,if health was improved,if trade was improved,if warring tribes were "quietened" it was for the betterment of Britian and it was paid for ten fold by the blood and treasure of subjugated peoples." If the colony was profitable, yes. Many were not. Things like "India" were not nations until the English made it one, with a common language. Feudal and feuding pretend states like Scotland and Ireland were given the structure to use or rebel against that aided their rise. They weren't much previous. It wasn't pretty, often brutal, but it worked.
"You must understand that the English never conquered Ireland.It was the Normans.They were better savages than either the Saxons or the Irish.Unlike Ireland their system took root in Britian.We fought and although paid a heavy price we are unlike the Scots and Welsh, Irish and not British." It may give you pleasure to pretend that the English never conquered you, but you're wrong.
A hundred years after William the Conqueror defeated Harold (King of England) and became King of England - see how that works? - other Normans from England and France invaded Ireland at the behest of one feudal street gang in order to fight others for King of Ireland. Fighting went on as it had forever for this dubious title.
A few years later Henry II, the first declared Plantagenet King of England, arrived and near everyone acknowledged him as King or Ireland, including the Pope, and King John inherited it. You were conquered under the crown of England. It would be like the Sioux saying they weren't conquered by Americans because of the vicious English blood in President and generals. Like the Irish, Scots and others, the tribes were conquered because they sold each other out easily.
*However, having read the article, yes, they're idiots.
"As the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, Washington led his troops to an improbable victory over the vastly larger and more experienced British Army, which was known then as the greatest fighting force the world had ever seen." Really? The BRITISH army? The British were reduced to using Hessians they were so beat up.
"Washington is credited with restoring momentum to the floundering patriot cause when he strategized a daring night-time crossing of the Delaware River in an effort to capture New Jersey in December 1776. Victories in Saratoga in 1777 and Yorktown in 1781 ensconced Washington's status as an American military genius and war hero." No one beyond being polite called Washington a genius at war. He played no role whatever at Saratoga and the French won at Yorktown. Gates and Arnold were better generals, and Washington lost most of his battles, I think. Washington was remarkable, but he was not Hannibal or Caesar. When liberation movements honor our Revolution, they know it wasn't necessary to win all the battles to win the war.
As the Irish don't want to admit they were conquered by the English, seems the English don't want to admit France's role.
"The Britain's National Army Museum conducted an online poll of around 8,000 people..." Ah. Scientific. "... which produced a short-list of five men to compete for the title of Britain's greatest military enemy.
One important criterion for the contest was that each commander needed to have personally led an army on the field of battle against British forces, ruling out front-runner Adolf Hitler. There's a meaningful criteria. "Washington won this battle against Irish independence hero Michael Collins, France's Napoleon Bonaparte, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey."
Yeah. Moronic. Napoleon led forces against England and win or lose was a greater threat.