Friday, October 5, 2007

News flash - US won the War of 1812!

According to an article in yesterday’s National Post, some in the United States feel that their side was victorious in the War of 1812. One memorable quote: "Certainly we won. Because if we hadn't, we'd be using loonies and toonies instead of dollar bills, wouldn't we?"

Now I don't mean to be picky, but it seems to me that if you invade another country and are soundly repulsed, that does not constitute a victory. Amazing!

2 comments:

The Mound of Sound said...

The War of 1812 was America's first foreign war and their first defeat in war. However, based on the senseless drubbings they managed to achieve in Vietnam and Iraq, 1812 probably looks like a win in comparison.

America lost the War of 1812. The U.S. declared war and, from the outset, it was intended to be a war of conquest. America's leaders openly boasted how easy it would be to drive the British out of Canada and take it all for themselves. Funny how they keep doing that, eh?

Make no mistake about it, we were up against it. The Americans had us outnumbered about 10-1 in general population and available soldiers. Because of their considerably greater population they also had a road system along lakes Ontario and Erie which we largely lacked. This gave us little option but to rely on water transportation, very vulnerable to the dominant US navy and as bad if no worse during the winter months.

No, the Americans had pretty much every advantage in that war but, as so often the case, their effort was beset by hubris and a nation deeply divided on the war itself.

As we never set out to conquer America it's ludicrous to contend that the absence of loonies and toonies signifies anything. The fact that young Canadians never had to go to Vietnam or Iraq is ample evidence of just who won the War of 1812.

Canajun said...

Well said.
Some years ago I was given one of those dragonfly lenses - you know, the one with a gazillion facets so what you see is completely fragmented and distorted - and I sometimes despair at how many of our sourthern neighbours seem to have been born with that twisted view of the world. Perhaps it's the water.