11/11/1918

(An annual post)

Have you forgotten yet ?
Look down, and swear by the slain of the War that you’ll never forget.

Do you remember the dark months you held the sector at Mametz – The nights you watched and wired and dug...?

Do you ever stop and ask, ‘Is it all going to happen again ?’ . . .

Have you forgotten yet ?...

Look up, and swear by the green of the spring that you’ll never forget.

Siegfried Sassoon “Aftermath, March 1919.”

Today is Veterans Day in America. Because the calendar is crowded with holidays, Veterans Day replaced an older holiday, known as Armistice Day, which commemorated the end of the First World War, surely the most needless, tragic, but consequential war of modern times. Canada, Australia and the other British Commonwealth nations, very appropriately, call today “Remembrance Day” which is how I prefer to think of it. World War I is ancient history to most of us, yet it is with us, always. Pause, friend, for a moment, wherever you are, and remember.

When historians look back upon our times, they will probably agree that the 21st Century really began on 11 September 2001. Similarly, Gavrilo Princip, a 19-year old Serbian revolutionary bandit, member of a terrorist organization called the Black Hand, the al Qaeda of its time, effectively began the 20th Century about 11:15 a.m. on 28 June 1914 when he murdered Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary, and his wife, Archduchess Sophie, by a bridge in Sarajevo, in what is now Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Ninety years later, Sarajevo was the scene of more violence, this time between Serbs, Croats, and Muslims, quarreling over the make-up of the post-Cold War Balkans. The 20th Century thus ended where and as it begin, in Sarajevo, in blood, with another war that nobody would win.

The 1990’s violence in the former Yugoslavia, like almost everything else in modern times, stemmed from the war that Princip helped begin. Over 10 million dead bodies later, the war he and a baker’s dozen of incompetents started ended today, in 1918.

Officially ended, anyway. How can an atrocity like the First World War ever truly end ? Fought over nothing, ending in no victory for anyone, except political cranks, demagogic ideologues and other fanatics. The First World War, besides murdering millions, destroyed ancient Christian kingdoms, and killed the faith of the peoples in their civilization, in their leaders, in progress, parliamentary institutions, science and religion, and left us instead the poison fruits of Communism, Nazism, and Socialism and all the other “isms” you can possibly ever think of. The road to Auschwitz, Hitler and Stalin runs straight from the murder scene in Sarajevo. The Second World War killed more, in raw numbers, than the First – but the later war was only a continuation made possible by the poisons unleashed in the first war.

Satan had a good day in Sarajevo in June 1914. If not for the murderer Princip, and the clumsy diplomats and generals who blundered Europe and the world into a war everyone lost, whoever would have heard of Lenin, Stalin, Hitler or Mussolini ? Lenin would have rotted away in exile with his books and scribblings; Hitler no doubt would have died in deserved obscurity in some Vienna doss-house. Stalin would have met the inevitable fate of a bank robber; and Mussolini perhaps never left journalism. No collapse of the British Empire forcing America onto the world stage to redress the balance. No Great Depression, no Nazis, no World War II or Holocaust, no Cold War. Maybe no collapse of the Ottoman Empire giving us, ultimately, Bin-Laden, Zarqawi, Arafat and suicide bombers.

But Gavrilo Princip fired his fatal bullets, and the whole edifice of civilization crumpled before them. The shots of Sarajevo echo still. Gentle reader, think today of his crime, and of all whom, unknowing, ultimately paid. Because of the shots in Sarajevo, men who had no reason to hate each other fought and murdered each other all over the world in job lots -- in the fields of Champagne, on the roads of Poland and in the snows of Russia, in Iraq and in China. Children died in the cold Atlantic and starved by the million in Russia, the mountains of Armenia and the Balkans. Sleepy eastern Europe, so long a quiet agricultural backwater, twice in fifty years was turned into an abattoir. Americans died in the Argonne and, thirty years later, in the Pacific and in the deserts of Africa; later in the jungles of Vietnam; and today US Marines are dying in Fallujah, Baghdad and in the hills of Afghanistan, all in some way because of, or related to the acres of warehouses of cans of worms opened by Princip.

Besides killing, maiming and wounding millions, the war had other, more insidious effects, as we have seen just this week. Most fatally, Europe lost confidence in its leaders, in science, in the Christian religion – in itself -- at some level even in its right to exist as a culture. Today we see France, mulcted by its sacrifice of so much blood and treasure in the first half of the 20th Century, hesitant to even criticize, much less repress, barbarian rioters in its midst, and even willing to pay them to be quiet. Germany and Russia, gravely wounded in both body and soul, led the turn away from God, progress, law and civilization, and burned books and millions of their own citizens. Britain, mother of Parliaments and the law, crippled and bankrupted by that war and its continuation, abandoned its Empire, is ashamed of its past, and its political class today quivers in fear of criticism by modernity's ascendant barbarians.

Today in 1918 -- on the eleventh hour, of the eleventh month, of the eleventh day – the first war ended, and the killing took a little break. Think of all war dead today, dear reader. But, almost 100 years on, spare a thought for a moment or two for all the dead of the Great War, so pointless, so long ago, but so horribly, tragically important.

Conversation

Early this morning, I had an interesting conversation of sorts with an old, old friend. We have not spoken in over a year. I’ve known L since junior high school, or middle school as they call it now. My family played the moving game several times during school years, so L is, or was, about the oldest friend I had.

Unfortunately, alongside friendship and growing up and families and all the rest of existence, there’s politics. L and I certainly never had politics in common, but up until rather recently, that never seemed to matter too much. However, the last presidential election evidently was too much, and L dropped me; an event, which, quite frankly, cut me pretty deeply, and still does. It never even entered my mind that this might happen one day, particularly over something as silly as politics.

Oh yes, I was talking about a conversation. Anyway, L called me. I can’t really tell you what the talk was about, or even exactly what was said, except that we talked for a long time about families and places and old times, and people we both know. I turned around to grab something…and found myself looking at my cat (who was lying right there on the bed with me, looking at my face, apparently deeply concerned), and the bright red numbers on the alarm clock.

The whole episode had been a dream. I had evidently gotten up, turned off the alarm, and fallen back asleep. An extremely real dream: I mean, that conversation seemed REAL to me. I do not generally have dreams like that, quite so vivid or about persons of importance to me so I suppose on some level I must have needed that “contact” even if it was only with chemical and electrical processes in my own head. I immediately thanked God for the opportunity to talk once more to my, I suppose, ex-friend, even if only to an image in my head.

Happy Birthday Marines

Today is the 230th anniversary of the founding of the US Marine Corps, an institution just over six months older than the country it protects. I was going to write my own more elaborate happy birthday, but Mackubin Thomas Owens's over at National Review Online really cannot be bettered, and I commend it to your attention.

I'll just say Happy Birthday USMC, and thank you.

Prediction

Now that the elections are over, expect the Left (both the Democrat politicians and Big Media) to drop the mask of objectivity and friendliness towards Judge Alito. The gloves will really come off, from today forward.

Schemes Postponed

"Annapolis, Annapolis! Oh, yes, Annapolis must be defended; to be sure, Annapolis should be defended - where is Annapolis?"

Thomas, Duke of Newcastle (1693-1768).

Still have, inter alia, the Iranians on my mind. I haven't forgotten about my promised plan to singe the Mullahs' beards. The plan is in my head, and will appear soon. But I want to do a better job than the Duke of Newcastle. Between El Jefe's day job, engagements these past several evenings, and some other matters, I have not had a chance to give it the attention it deserves, in the form of some additional research on a couple of points, and writing it down. But it's coming.

"A man, a plan, a canal..." No wait, that was another guy, another story.

Stay tuned.

Good Morning...

All is well in the world of El Jefe. I snooze in the comfy chair on the lawn of my Autumn Palace, in the Misty Mountains above Ciudad El Jefe, empty Cosmo glass on the table next to me, along with the ashtray bearing my dead cigar, and the plate with little bits of Gruyere cheese. The grounds are patrolled by a full regiment of El Jefe’s elite goombas, his personal guard, vigilantly watching over the sleeping Maximum Leader, all wearing their authentic 1920’s ice-cream suits, and carrying their genuine M 1928 Thompsons.

El Jefe’s loyal major domo/butler/fixer, Fritz, complete with monocle, has El Jefe’s next Cosmo ready when he wants it, along with all the Yankee papers and his breakfast, and will handle the phone if that insipid fool King Jacques calls for more advice.

Meanwhile, the protection money (er, taxes), flows into El Jefe’s treasury, the peasants are happily at work in their fields; the five different departments of Secret Police are all busy routing out the (fortunately few) depraved enemies of the Beloved Boss of Bosses. The factories are humming, the shops are full, the streets bustling, corporate profits obscene. Sunny skies, good pollution. At the Gas Station (corner of Avenue El and Jefe Street), super-unleaded (“Sky Jefe”) at the full-service pump is $.50 per gallon.

Someone is shaking my shoulder….is it El Jefe’s Principal Mistress, Marilyn Monroe, the Love Blonde…no, no NO….

Alas, the alarm clock, jerking El Jefe back to the all too mundane reality of working for a living. I’m working on an ERISA brief at work…deadly boring stuff. King Jacques needs to clap his rioters in a dungeon, make them read ERISA and the Internal Revenue Code to each other aloud…guaranteed to kill with sheer boredom almost instantly.

Speaking of the French, their cabinet seems to have at last gotten off the dime and declared a “state of emergency” under an old law dating from the Algerian War in the 1950’s. The rioters seem to be tiring: hopefully this is the case, because the police must be near utter exhaustion. On the subject of the French riots, be sure to read Theodore Dalrymple’s excellent article from City Journal in Autumn 2002 -- “The Barbarians at the Gates of Paris” (only recently brought to my attention) – which may be found via Real Clear Politics (link in the sidebar) or here.

Also worth reading: Carlos Alberto Montaner’s excellent little piece in Real Clear Politics on the silly Summit of the Americas. “Anti-Americanism Has Become Ideology.” The money quotes: “The Left today is nothing but circus and street violence” and “Latin America is the continent of the future and always will be.” You can find that one here.

Finally, go to Rush Limbaugh's site and check out the idea Rush has for President Saddam's legal defense team. Saddam's lawyers need to put Rush on the payroll, pronto. Rush has a whole speech written, built around the theme: "Bush lied and I want my country back !"

Elections today all over the US. To El Jefe the most interesting contest today involves the fate of four proposals by California Governor Ahhh…nold Schwarzenegger, in particular a campaign finance provision that would prevent labor unions from automatically using member dues for political activities unless they have the member’s consent; and another proposal limiting State spending.

Governor Schwarznegger’s proposals seem wise to me, and I assume the merit of them would be readily apparent to anybody who is not a raving lunatic. Evidently, not to the voters of nearly broke California – the Governor’s whole package seems headed for defeat. If I were the Governor, I’d resign if this happened. You can’t help drowning people who won’t swim.

Asprins for Cancer, Paying Danegeld

Despite riots in cities all over France, the best the government can come up with is curfews twelve days after they started, and the belated mobilization of 1,500 police reservists, to reinforce 8,000 or so police, Gendarmes, and CRS (the Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité -- riot police). No, wait, the cabinet is going to consider the curfew measure Tuesday. Meanwhile, while the clerks arrange the fountain pens in the cabinet room and order the refreshments, 1,400 vehicles were torched Monday night. Asked whether the Army should reinforce the hard-pressed police, Prime Minister deVillespin says that "we are not at that point."

King Jacques Chirac XVI, from his throne-room in the Elysee Palace, says the chaos is all society's fault, that the poor Muslims are running riot because France "has not done everything possible for these youths, supported them so they feel understood, heard and respected." Evidently the "youths" (can't say Muslim, now can we ?) are all too audible at present to the Government of the French Republic. Prime Minister deVillepin is promising that a $35 billion re-development plan for the inner cities will be sped up, along with jobs and training programs, plus merit scholarships.

What planet are these people on ? We're going into the twelfth night of riots in 275 or so towns and cities all over France. The cops are being fired on. They -- and their comrades in the sapeurs-pompiers (the fire department) -- have to be completely exhausted. The government should have used the Army to back up the police and give them some rest a week ago. Meanwhile, you've got the President saying the rioters have legitimate grievances, and the Prime Minister offering to pay them $35 billion and give the scumbags jobs and scholarships. Gee, what will the rioters get if they burn down all Paris ? Keys to Versailles, free cars, a year's free wine and all-expenses-paid vacations ?

What will King Jacques and his idiot Prime Minister do when the police stop showing up for work, and in this and other ways begin demonstrating a lack of interest in risking maiming and death on behalf of politicians willing to pay off the people shooting and stoning them ? The forces of order have been working at riot control for coming up on two weeks, without thanks, relief or much success, and the breaking point has to be approaching pretty quick. When the police crack, there will be nothing left but to hand the whole job to the Army -- and however good the soldiers might be at backing up the police, I beg leave to wonder how good they'll be replacing them entirely. It's going to be a bloody mess, but King Jacques better hope the troops are willing to shoot.

Every night this goes on, the credibility of the mainstream politicians in France is diminished. This applies to Gaullists as well as Socialists. The French elite is committing suicide. Jacques Chirac and Dominique de Villepin are handing France over to LePen and to the National Front.

The French Riots

Be sure to read the always prescient and often funny Mark Steyn's very un-funny piece in the Chicago Sun Times today about the opening of the "Eurabian" civil war in France. Among other things, Mr. Steyn points out what a joke it is that the mainstream press keeps calling the rioting scum "French youths." Yeah, right. As Mr. Steyn tells us, the rioters may be technically citizens of the French Republic, but the cars aren't being torched by "Pierre and Jacques and Marcel and Alphonse" out for a night's burning and looting before heading to church.

The French identity has always been one size fits all, something about the French political worldview that I have always deeply admired. The French have absolutely refused to promote "multiculturalism" in the American sense. Instead, the French have always believed in "republican integration" -- when Abdul or Mohammad or whoever go to school in France, they do not receive the happy talk or education in "diversity" that passes for historical education in the United States today. They learn about the Gauls, Joan of Arc, Napoleon and deGaulle. In the eyes of the law, there are no distinctions between Abdul and Pierre.

But the French have let themselves down. Another component of the French approach to the world, since the suppression of the Commune in 1871, has always been "republican legality," which, among other things, includes a complete refusal to counternance violent troublemakers of any kind, for any reason. However, this has been slipping of late. As Mr. Steyn points out: "For half a decade, French Arabs have been carrying on a low-level intifada against synagogues, kosher butchers, Jewish schools, etc. The concern of the political class has been to prevent the spread of these attacks to targets of more, ah, general interest. They seem to have lost that battle." Boy and how ! Mr. Steyn describes these rioters firing on the Gendarmerie, burning down buildings and disrupting commuter trains. We've seen the photographs of torched cars all over our newspapers. Meanwhile, President Chirac, presumably from a padded cell, calls for a "spirit of dialogue and respect."

What could be more illuminating ? Scumbag rioters are shooting at your police and you're calling for "dialogue and respect ?" The reason police are being fired at and buildings burned is because the French have refused to respond to Mr. Steyn's "low level intifada." No wonder the rioters have complete contempt for the government. If I were Chirac, the only calling I'd be doing would be to the police and army barracks to order the issuance of live ammunition. We could talk about "dialogue and respect" when the rioters were dead or jailed.

"Weakness and forbearance" when confronted with violence, yet again. (See last post). The French might as well just skip "multiculturalism" and go straight to state subsidized mosques, the shariah and compulsory veils for women. "Republican integration" will not work without "republican legality" -- without strict law and order. The French are now in a battle, and not in a situation calling for "dialogue and respect." Are they going to fight, or not ?

ADDENDUM: (Sunday p.m.). The present state of affairs in France, in general, makes me want to weep. I've been a Francophile all my life. This is la grande nation ? DeGaulle, Napoleon I, Napoleon III, Louis XIV, Gambetta, Clemenceau, St. Joan, Joffre, Foch, Petain (the WWI version) -- all spinning in their graves. To think the response to the present crisis is by the Gaullist party -- what passes for a right wing in mainstream French politics. Are they not still the men of Austerlitz ? The French were the people who survived Verdun and won the First World War ?

Restless Rabble and Futile Trips

He was amazed by so much weakness and forbearance. And when the King showed himself at one of the windows overlooking the garden wearing the red cap that a commoner had put on him, Buonaparte's indignation knew no bounds "Che coglione ! Why did they ever let that rabble in ? They should have blasted four or five hundred with cannon and the rest would have taken to their heels. . . If I were king things like that would not happen."

L.A.F. deBourrienne, sometime private secretary to and friend of Napoleon I on Napoleon's comments on Louis XVI's reaction to the revolutionary mob that stormed his palace.

President Bush is in Mar del Plata, Argentina, for the “Summit of the Americas.” Precisely why our President has hied himself off to Argentina is anybody's guess. Multilateral summits in Latin America, where the leadership class despises us, are of no utility to us whatever. For some reason, President Bush wishes to breathe the same air as mobs of scummy rioters and the politicians of a continent that never fails to applaud a statist solution to any economic problem.

The leftists, led by Moonbat Chavez, are busy doing their usual lefty thing, skipping baths, burning and pillaging, and swilling themselves senseless. Just like the rabble rioting all over France whom French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy rightly called scum. (An aside: poor Prime Minister deVillepin is clearly cut more from the cloth of Louis XVI, than from Napoleon I, whom he professes to admire: deVillepin rebuked the Interior Minister for his comment). M. deVillepin and the President of Argentina need to call in their generals and put an end to the nonsense.

Meanwhile, I return to my original question. Why is our President in Argentina ? I wish President Bush would go to Baghdad, where he is needed and would be welcomed, and visit the troops. Let him take satchels of medals and promotions and visit the troops all over the country. Spend a week there. Yes, the security poodles would get heart palpitations, but one of the privileges of being President is the power to tell them to shut up. The President is commander in chief and should act like it. A visit to the soldiers in the field would be good for the military's morale, and for his own. No lawyers or idiot lobbyists, yammering lefties, or statesmen who say yes and mean no: just serious young people doing necessary work for which they don't get near enough credit.

Fire up Air Force One, Mr. President, and leave that place. Go do something useful.

Moonbat Watch: Jimmy Carter and Iraq

Former US President Jimmy Carter added his penny's worth of comment to the chorus of Left wing criticism of the war in Iraq, calling the Second Gulf War "ill-advised and unjust and unnecessary."

"Ill-advised" and "unnecessary" are certainly debatable and defensible positions on the American effort in Iraq. I happen to completely disagree with former President Carter on both counts, but these positions can be respectably argued, preferably after the war's conclusion.

But unjust ?

A little truth in blogging here. El Jefe doesn't bother with all the hair-splitting of "just war" theory. St. Augustine and others have had plenty to say on this subject, all very erudite and well-considered. Whatever. Like the Romans of the Republican era, El Jefe considers a "just war" any war we happen to be in, no matter who starts it, no matter what it's about; and that the only moral conclusion to war is with our complete victory, and the enemy's destruction or submission, however long it takes and whatever it costs.

I'm fully aware others do not subscribe to this view, but how in the world can our liberation of Iraq be "unjust" even to President Carter ? What does he want ? "Bush lied and thousands died !" the liberals bleat. Would President Carter, Senator Kennedy and Ms. Sheehan be happy if we just pulled out the troops and leave anarchy behind ? Reward the suicide bombers and civilian-beheaders ? How many thousands, who have joined the new Iraqi Army, voted in elections, or supported the new government, will die then ?

The liberals clearly pine for the re-enactment of their finest hour, the American abandonment, at their behest, of South Vietnam. The bloodbath that followed that debacle was no concern of theirs. What would St. Augustine, or anybody privileged to be born in normal times before the world media or the existence of the modern internationalized, deracinated chattering classes, make of a craven, dirty crew who long for the defeat of their own country ?

Maybe we should just let Saddam out of his cell and make him dictator again, so he can go back to throwing people beneath wood-chip cutters.

Iranian Front

We have a strategy drawn up for the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization and for the uprooting of the Americans and the English. The global infidel front is a front against Allah and the Muslims, and we must make use of everything we have at hand to strike at this front by means of our suicide operations or by means of our missiles. There are 29 sensitive sites in the U.S. and in the West. We have already spied on these sites and we know how we are going to attack them.

Hassan Abbassi, Chief of External National Security Planning for the Revolutionary Guards Corps; advisor to Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, and to Iranian “Supreme Guide” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, May 2004.

Friends, the mullah regime in Iran not only wants a bomb, it wants to bomb our country flat, wreck our world order and drink our blood. Have a look at the Baron's recent post on this subject over at Gates of Vienna, here; Doctor Zin's post over at Regime Change Iran, here; and, Michael Ledeen at National Review Online here. Read up, also, on so-called President Ahmadinejad's speech at the World Anti-Zionism conference, and check out that body's chilling poster (at Regime Change Iran), and the revolting conference website (I'll leave you to look that one up on your own).

These people are not kidding around, but this shouldn't be a surprise if you've been paying attention. The Iranian regime is squandering its oil revenues arming to the teeth as fast as it can; it is providing aid, comfort and shelter to wanted Al Qaeda terrorists, and it is killing US and Iraqi soldiers in Iraq.

The two things the mullah regime has going for it is the seeming refusal of most of the American public, much less that of Europe, to take its pretentions seriously; and the sometimes overt, mostly covert wish-dream of the elites of much of the rest of the world for a planet without the pesky Americans, their money and their military around to be so constantly bossy.

The problem is not Iranian nuclear weapons. Iran is going to have nuclear weapons, one way or another. It is rich enough to afford them, has or can build the technological base to construct them, and all factions in the country want them for reasons of prestige. The problem is that Iran is presently led by barbarians who are dangerous both to their own people, to their region, and to the whole world. Such a regime cannot be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons. The solution is to bring down the regime.

This is possible, I think, without the use of US troops. The regime has a narrow domestic base, and serious economic problems, not to mention regional enemies. I have some definite ideas on how to give the criminals in Tehran a good push, about which I will have more to say soon.

Operational Pause

All sorts of things going on, some of them personal. Not feeling much up to blogging at present -- a focus issue. Will resume again when this changes, hopefully soon.

Wargaming

I am a wargamer, have been for years. Just at the moment, I am setting up a giant Eastern Front World War I game (Germany and Austria-Hungary against Tsarist Russia). For the past several days in my hideaway office upstairs at home, I have been deploying the Imperial Russian armies, all over the huge map of the eastern Ukraine, Poland, and what is now the Baltic States and Belarus; hard on the borders of East Prussia and Austrian Galicia and the Bukovina. Quite a massive deployment, and impressive to see set out on the maps. All told, about 75 infantry and cavalry divisions, with supports and other troops coming up, (26 or so against Germany, 49 against Austria). Dwarfed by similar deployments in World War II, and later offensives in World War I of course, but no-doubt enormous for the Russian, German and Austrian officers involved, all brought up studying 19th Century wars.

I got interested in this hobby, and military history generally, I think because I enjoy geography and maps. I have always had a particular interest in the Eastern Front of World War I: a largely forgotten conflict.

It was here, in the then sleepy back-country of Eastern Europe, amid swamps, dust and poverty, from Minsk to Berlin; that the modern world was born. From 1914-1918, the great Austrian, German and Russian empires, along with the whole, laboriously built-up European state and colonial system, collectively committed suicide here; and civilization, in a sense, ended. All the crackpots and murderers of the modern age: Communists, Nazis, assorted left and right populists, Third World tinpot nationalists, Islamic religious fanatics -- all acquired their political opening right here. The cauldron brewed here threw up the repulsive nihilism of so much of what passes for culture today. On this same bloody ground, most of the Holocaust happened.

Lots of food for thought, but just at the moment, I find myself wondering what the people who worked with the original maps – in particular the Russian General Staff officers -- thought of it all, while mobilization and deployment went forward in late July-early August 1914. Setting up their own headquarters, watching the symbols appear on the maps, passing on their drives or rides to the various field headquarters the long, dusty columns snaking down the dirt roads and tracks of Poland from the railroad sidings? The clank of tons of equipment; the overpowering smell of horses, unwashed men, their wastes, gun-oil, the smell of the field-kitchens and cook-fires; burning eyes from the clouds of dust; the curses and blows of the sergeants; the wheep of the horsewhips; the inevitable confusion of transition from peacetime garrison to movements in the field; the wondering whether all the bustle was yet another Balkan crisis that would pass, or the real thing.

I am sure it all looked quite impressive on the maps, but given the normal conditions in the Imperial Russian Army, was certainly quite a mess in practice. I wonder if it occurred to any of the generals, or any of the bright whipper-snappers on the staff, watching the symbols go up on the big maps, that they were witnessing the apocalypse made flesh, the murder-suicide of their world ? What an utterly stupid and useless waste.

Exeunt Miers, Hannibal Ante Portas, Finis Astros

Lots of news this morning. By letter to the President dated this morning, Harriet Miers requested that her nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court be withdrawn. Ms. Miers attributed her decision to probable demands by the Senate for documents concerning her tenure as Counsel to the President which would be protected by executive privilege. The President’s statement accepting her decision states that Ms. Miers will remain as White House Counsel.

Ms. Miers’s decision to withdraw her nomination extracts the President from a political jam, and is welcome. Given the lack of support for Ms. Miers among Republican Senators and interest groups; and the President’s other problems at the moment, her withdrawal was a political necessity. Her graceful exit should be remembered, and rewarded by the President at the proper time.

As readers of this blog may remember, I have said before that Ms. Miers would not have been my own choice, but I believe, and continue to believe, that the President’s choice was entitled to consideration by the Senate, and to support from the President’s party and supporters unless and until hearings showed her unworthy. Criticism and skepticism about the choice is one thing, but the degree of piling-on by certain persons who ought to have known better has been shameful. To preserve his own position, the President will need to, eventually, retaliate politically against those most obnoxious in this business.

In all probability, however, this will have to wait awhile, because Hannibal is at the gates. The Justice Department Special Counsel looking into the Plame business, Patrick Fitzgerald, has stated that there will be no announcement from his office today. The term of his Grand Jury expires tomorrow unless extended. One interpretation of Mr. Fitzgerald’s Delphic “no announcement” statement” would be that that indictments, possibly of persons in the White House or in the Vice-President’s office – will be forthcoming on the marrow. The President, and those under threat, are being given a day to get their affairs in order.

The Plame matter is completely ludicrous, but the President will need the united support of all conservatives and Republicans. Consequently, prepare for a solidly conservative nominee, and a titanic fight in the Senate. On the other hand, if Mr. Fitzgerald’s Grand Jury expires without indictments, at least of administration personnel, issuing, the President is in a much stronger position to pay back persons who have recently made themselves odious.

On the local front, the Chicago White Sox swept the World Series last night, sinking the poor Astros in Houston. El Jefe is not a huge baseball fan, but he commiserates with his fellow disappointed Houstonians this morning, and longtime Astros fans everywhere (including the Heir and SWMBO), who so wanted a winner. In truth, the Astros did magnificently to even get to the World Series, and that feat alone is worth congratulations. Maybe next year.

World Series

Last night, El Jefe and the Heir, along with the Heir’s cousin, were privileged to attend Game 3 of the World Series, at Minute Maid Park here in Houston, as guests of El Jefe’s Dad. Quite something: I had attended one previous World Series game, in New York City in 1986 (Mets vs. Red Sox). But it was splendid to attend a World Series game at home, and see the hard-luck home team finally in the Big Show.

A great night for baseball, not too cold, but like most Astros fans, I would have preferred the stadium roof closed. What bloody business is it of Major League Baseball what we do with our roof ? This aside, we ate our hot dogs, snarfed some peanuts and had a good time.

Last night's result was certainly somewhat disappointing for Astros fans, particularly after the Astros left three runners on base in the 9th inning, and nobody in the top of the order could even get a single. Hopefully, the Astros experience a change of fortune, but Houston fans should be pleased just to be in the series. I know I was happy to be there.

The Way Forward in Iraq

There is at last some truly splendid news from Iraq. The Iraqi people have defied their enemies and detractors, and adopted a constitution. Their courage in the face of threats, and the fortitude of our troops in the face of cowardly murder and complete disregard for the laws of war on the part of our barbarian common enemies, opens the way forward to complete victory in Iraq. By December, Iraq, uniquely in an Islamic world governed by petty tyrants; corrupt and murderous dictators a la Saddam; barbarian mullahs and jumped-up tribal-chiefs --will have a fully functioning republican government, and the beginnings of liberal institutions.

Of course, the US mainstream press: mouthpiece of our craven opinion elites, our quisling academics and various and sundry defeatists and crypto-fascists -- can talk about nothing but the 2,000th US casualty in Iraq. In any normal historical context, the conquest and complete regeneration of a xenophobic foreign state of 29 million people for the cost of 2,000 dead would be a stupendous military achievement. Napoléon himself never did that.

Nothing has been impossible for the American soldier ! (I include his Marine, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard comrades). Our armies defeated a big, reputedly tough foreign enemy, dispersed their armies, occupied their capital, and captured their tyrant-leader, who now awaits hanging. Our armed forces have gone a long way towards establishing public order (which never in our sense has ever existed in Iraq). Our military engineers have restored (and in some cases established) basic public services, assisted the sick, and are training and building a new Iraqi Army that, in years to come, will be a solid American ally in the Persian Gulf. Finally, they are, bit by bit, terrorist by terrorist, putting paid to verminous barbarian enemies who make war on women and children when they aren't using them as human bombs. All this has been accomplished on a shoestring.

When the history of these years is truly written, its readers will stand in awe of the accomplishments of our uniformed brothers and children. Our children will see that the heroes of Baghdad, of Fallujah, of Nasiriyah are worthy heirs to their fathers of the Argonne, Bataan, Normandy, Iwo Jima, the Chosun Reservoir, of Khe Sanh and the A Shau Valley.

Every American and allied casualty in this war is a tragedy and a shame. No words or prayers of ours, no monument we may build, no help we can give can console the parents, the children and loved ones so bereaved. But do not be deceived by the too clever by half blandishments of those who say they support the troops, but not the cause they died for. If these political exploiters of pain and suffering are allowed to prevail, they will render the blood sacrifices of so many meaningless, and they will hand millions of innocent people: the voters of Iraq who showed by exercising their franchise that they want a better, peaceful way forward -- over to barbarism, to codign punishment for supporting us and to a worse than Egyptian bondage. They will go back to their newspapers, their tree-lined campuses and their BMW's, safely insulated from the tyranny they will cheerfully see imposed on others. When you listen to the traducers of our war effort, never, never forget their earlier work: the boat people of South Vietnam.

Let those who would use the dead to besmirch the cause they died for, or to weaken our resolve to win the war -- go crawl back under whatever rock they live under. There, they can preach the same noxious defeatist nonsense they have been preaching these past forty years. America, and liberty, are moving forward in Iraq. There is no substitute for victory here. There never was.

Time of Troubles

Wilma wrecks south Florida; a prosecutor is knocking at the Vice-President's door with indictments (Al Franken suggesting execution); the Left is collectively panting both for conservative blood and for the 2,000th US KIA in Iraq; the silly Beltway conservatives are shooting us all in the foot in wartime with their revolt over the President's dud Supreme Court candidate...

And all this week. Can things get worse ? How about a plague of locusts...

But we have to carry on. The President is right about all the big things. Napoleon said once that real courage was "two o'clock in the morning" courage: the ability to carry on even when it's inconvenient; when one most feels like giving up, when it would be so easy to pack it in. Here's hoping the President is ready to earn his pay.

This Just In from Moonbat Central

Hugo Chavez, Tinpot Dictator of Venezuela, states that he is in possession of "intelligence" indicating that the US is getting ready to invade his oil-rich Bolivarian Banana Republic. Has to be false, unfortunately, the US is usually not that smart. Hugo'd do good in a padded cell in Guantanamo.

The Big Banana did not fail to add the usual commie diatribe about the US being "imperialist" and "terrorist." If only we were half that bad, at least to folks like Chavez.

Two can play the warped proclamation game: El Jefe Maximo, Godfather el grande of West University, announces that he is in possession of "intelligence" indicating that Tinpot Hugo Chavez is a raving loudmouthed lunatic who molests collies.

UPDATE: Eagle 1 over at Eagle Speak has more on Wackjob Chavez's fevered invasion imaginings, plus a link to the CIA factbook entry on the Bolivarian Banana Republic of Venezuela. Here's hoping Limp Banana's nighmares come true sometime.

Expecting the Spanish Inquisition

The AP reports that a Spanish judge, one Santiago Pedraz, has issued an arrest warrant for three US soldiers: Lieutenant Colonel Philip deCamp, Captain Philip Wolford, and Sergeant Shawn Gibson (all from 3rd Bn./64 Armor Rgt., 4th Bde., 3rd Inf. Div.). The soldiers are wanted for an incident during the Second Gulf War in 2003, when a US tank, whose crew believed they were under fire, opened fire on a Baghdad hotel, from whence they believed the shots were coming. The accusation is that the soldiers violated the Geneva Conventions, and the "Rome statute" creating the International Criminal Court. The US is not a party to the Rome statute.

Two journalists, including a Spanish television reporter, were killed. The US Army reviewed the incident, and found that the soldiers believed they were under fire, and that their reaction was justified.

Innocent persons are killed in war, and there is no evidence whatever that the soldiers, at all time acting under orders, killed these people intentionally. Judicial action against these officers and soldiers is outrageous.

However, the Spanish Court’s activities are part of a new trend in “international law” called “universal jurisdiction” which holds that any court, anywhere, may give itself jurisdiction over so-called violations of human rights. Spanish legislation gives that country's courts authority to act beyond Spain's borders in the case of alleged criminal acts which purportedly violate treaties to which Spain is a party. Moreover, private individuals may bring such cases to the attention of magistrates independently of prosecutors or law enforcement.

Such legislation, and this trend in the law generally, is both creation and creature of the media, non-governmental organizations, (NGO's) liberal activist groups, and other anti-American fellow-travelers and organizations. Universal jurisdiction is a direct attack on national sovereignty, and allows lawyers, judges, NGO's and the media to intrude into foreign and military policy matters properly left to sovereign governments, diplomats and generals. Other examples are the attempted Spanish prosecution of former Chilean President Augusto Pinochet, and various efforts to prosecute Henry Kissinger and other unpopular conservative politicians and diplomats – usually in Europe.

This tendency is only going to accelerate, and it will soon be impossible for American diplomats, soldiers, and anybody else with current or former connections with the government to be certain that they can travel abroad in safety. This is the product of an effort by transnational lawyers, NGO’s and weaker states to indirectly coerce sovereign governments into policy choices they would not otherwise pursue. Spain, and the other governments putting up with this nonsense, and the self-interested, anti-American lawyers in Europe, here and elsewhere pushing it are making a madhouse of diplomacy and military policy. The US government should immediately prepare to retaliate.

To begin with, this Spanish judge, and all abetting and assisting this prosecution should be indicted immediately under 18 U.S.C. § §1201(a)(5), 1201(d) and 1201(e) for conspiring to kidnap US officers and employees while “…engaged in, or on account of, the performance of official duties.”

Secondly, the military, the FBI and the State Department should be directed to, so far as is legally possible, to immediately begin compilation of lists of persons present or visiting in the United States or in places subject to its control, including employees of foreign governments – who are nationals of countries which permit their courts to practice such aggressions against American citizens and their government – whether via the theory of “universal jurisdiction,” human rights laws, or in any other way. Similar steps should be taken as to financial assets in this country of offending states and their citizens. To the extent there are legal barriers to such actions, the President should immediately seek the appropriate legislation.

In the event Spain or any other country moves to lay hands on American citizens, based on such patiently illegal justifications, the United States government should immediately, with regret, hold the persons listed in confinement until our citizens are released. (Maybe at Guantanamo ?)Two can play at the hostage game.

The Navy should be directed to dust-off plans for naval blockades, and seizures of shipping of countries engaging in such activities. Lots of water around Spain. Further, all branches of the military should ready contingency plans to be used when possible for the rescue of US citizens wrongfully detained on such specious grounds.

Additionally, we need to see to affairs in our own legal house. The anti-national effort to weaken governments, politicians and diplomats in favor of the transnational chattering classes has support here also. This should be combated. Once and for all, it needs to be definitively established that international “law” is not domestic law: but a component of foreign policy subject to political control, and not the other way round. To this end, we need legislation immediately, amending Title 28 of the US Code as necessary to provide that the proper construction of international law, treaties and similar international agreements is determined by the President, or by the Secretary of State, and that construction shall be binding on US Courts.

Make no mistake: the concept of universal jurisdiction is a threat to the sovereignty not only of the US, but of all other states. This Spanish judge is perilously close to committing an act of war against the United States, and he should be answered in kind. Yet again, the Lilliputians: weaker nations, NGO’s, the media, and the international chattering classes – are trying to use the lawyers to tie down Gulliver – the government of the United States. They need to be slapped down good and hard.

Circular Firing Squad

Fred Barnes has an excellent piece over at the Weekly Standard website entitled “The Conservative Revolt” giving us “six reasons” why “conservatives have turned on Bush.”

His reasoning is unimpeachable, the grounds for revolt real. As Mr. Barnes and others persuasively argue, the Harriet Miers Supreme Court appointment was just the last straw, particularly to the Conservative intelligentsia. Go find it and read it, if you’re that interested.

No, Ms. Miers wouldn’t have been my choice, either. Yes, there are valid grounds for criticism of the President. But El Jefe’s not joining any revolt, and he’d urge any conservatives thinking of getting out the pitchforks to reconsider. We have enough trouble at present, and it is time to hang together or hang separately.

The usual second term political/legal scandals are well under way, and the liberals are rubbing their hands together like kids on Christmas hoping that there are indictments of Karl Rove, I Lewis Libby or others in the Plame mess. Meanwhile, in Austin, a runaway prosecutor seems determined to jail Tom DeLay for being a successful politician. Finally, there is a war on – a war which the political opposition is at best ambivalent about.

Conservative/Republican poll numbers are sinking. An election is coming. Depend on it: if the Democrats recapture Congress there will be more subpoenas and investigations than snowflakes and ice-flows in Antarctica. Just imagine how the media is going to pile on. Although the Democrats have some relative moderates, their political base is going to insist on some blood. Consequently, Bush will be exceedingly lucky to avoid impeachment. Also, remember the war. Last time this sort of thing happened, the consequences included the fall of Saigon, and defeat in Vietnam.

The stakes are too high now for patriotic conservatives to play dissident, and persons like Messrs Frum, Bork and Will should stop it. The Senate will deal with the Miers nomination, one way or the other. Would-be rebels would do well to turn their rhetorical guns away from the White House.

Ave Atque Vale, Saddam

...Walk wide o' the Widow at Windsor,
For 'alf o' Creation she owns:
We 'ave bought 'er the same with the sword an' the flame,
An' we've salted it down with our bones.
(Poor beggars! -- it's blue with our bones!)

Hands off o' the sons o' the Widow,
Hands off o' the goods in 'er shop,
For the Kings must come down an' the Emperors frown
When the Widow at Windsor says "Stop"!
(Poor beggars! -- we're sent to say "Stop"!)

***
Rudyard Kipling “The Widow at Windsor”

Saddām Hussein Abd al-Majīd al-Tikrīti, sometime President of Iraq, Field Marshal of the Iraqi Army, Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, Secretary-General of the Baath Party, Light of the Arabs, the New Saladin, etc., etc., etc., went on trial for his squalid little life today in Iraq. He Who Confronts is now himself confronting justice, ostensibly for killing 150 Shiites in Dujail, Iraq in 1982. This trial in the former Baath Party headquarters may be just the beginning, Iraq’s own Sawdust Caesar could face at least fourteen other trials. Seems a waste to make this wretch, who ordered the killing of dissidents by feeding them into woodchip cutters – wait this long for his date with the hangman.

Saddam’s had more people murdered that El Jefe’s had hot dinners, which is saying a lot. But his murders and crimes are not the real reason Saddam will walk up the long ladder, and then hang from the short rope. Justice is good, but a secondary consideration here. Saddam’s real hanging offense was not to “Stop !” when the modern equivalent of Queen Victoria’s Britain – the US, said to stop. The hanging of Saddam is the point of the war in Iraq: an object lesson to Saddam’s confrere dictators and neighbors. Not cooperating with the United States can be bad for your health. Are you listening Boy Assad ? Hear us al-Sauds, Boss Chavez, Fidel ? Paying attention Mamoud in Tehran ? How bout you, Bob in Zimbabwe, or Prune Face Kim in North Korea ?

Yes, gentlemen tin-pots, potentates and Grand Poobahs, look at Mr. Saddam and think on it. Wear your pretty uniforms, strut and give yourselves medals. Buy all the guns we'll sell you. Come to Las Vegas and drink and whore yourselves sick, and to Houston to see the doctor, but remember, when Washington or Wall Street says "jump," your role is to say "how high?" Little Mr. Saddam forgot. He thought because he called himself President/Field Marshal he was the cat, not the mouse.

When the Ambassador or the local US representative comes calling to ask for your police files on Bin Laden; or tells you to hand over your nukes, arrest certain persons, or keep your lousy traps shut, best give a very respectful listen. Go ahead: bleat to Kofi, his fellow idiots in Cloud-Cuckoo-Land on the Hudson or the stupid little liberals and their media friends all you like about the war-monger Americans. See how much good it did President/Field Marshal/Chairman/Secretary-General Saddam, dragged out of his hole in the ground covered in his own piss, and soon to be dangling from a rope till dead, dead, dead; ashes tumped into an anonymous lime-pit someplace. Dream about it guys. It’s coming to you soon if you don't play nice.

Saddam can squirm and delay all he wants, and his lawyers will get to dance, but never forget the rope’s coming. Vale Saddam, you stupid bastard.

Matters at Casa El Jefe

Some renovations around El Jefe's Imperial casa. A couple of rooms upstairs have had old carpets removed and Pergo put in, including El Jefe's own sanctum sanctorum. This necessitated packing up part of El Jefe's little library. SWMBO tells me that 35 boxes of books were, well, a few too many. (Her description has been edited, after all, this is a family blog). Naturally, I have no clue what she means, but will have to be careful smuggling in new acquisitions in the immediate future.

Last night SWMBO and I joined our friends T and E for dinner at Benjy's. Fortunately, the Astros game concluded before we were due at Benjy's, or it might have been necessary to separate SWMBO from the car radio with the use of explosives. Thankfully, the game ended (well) just in time.

Benjy's has a fun upstairs lounge with a balcony. Houston is presently enjoying its two weeks of fall, so it was a splendid evening to sit outside, drink cocktails, gossip with T and E, and shout imprecations at some idiots down in the parking lot who refused to turn off their headlights. Several cosmos later, we went into dinner.

SWMBO enjoyed Crab Cakes in remoulade, (I got a bite, they were super good), and the Chopped Asian Salad (T and E had the salad also). In addition to the salad, T had the Margherita Pizza, which I shall try on our next visit. E had the Thai Barbecue Chicken Pizza, which really smelled wonderful, although I've never quite associated Thai or Thailand with barbecue. El Jefe had the Snapper, with red wine risotto, sunchokes, tomatoes, and olive oil. Some good wine, and creme brulee for desert finished things off. (E's cheesecake looked good, but the creme brulee was just right). I'm sure my doctor will sentence me to a flogging.

T and E had us over afterwards for a glass of wine, and after that and more fun chit-chat, we finally went home about midnight. A very nice evening.

T sent a reading assignment home: she lent me her copy of Louis Freeh's new book My FBI, which I have wanted to read since I saw the teasers published in Drudge just before the book was released. Got through the first chapter on the Khobar Towers bombing while drinking large quantities of H2O. Looks like a good book.

Back to unpacking books this afternoon. This is likely to be a long process, I tend to graze as I work. My bookshelves in the sanctum are double-ranked, so to speak, I have two ranks of books on each shelf, so stuff tends to stay hidden if on the rear shelves. I keep meaning to catalogue the collection, but that would be quite a bit of work. Fortunately, I know what I've got, so I can generally locate a book, but packing and unpacking tends to lead to a bit of grazing. Suppose I need to be more productive, or at least get the collection out of the bedroom before I get a rocket from SWMBO.

The Heir and I are going camping next weekend with the Cub Scouts, so need to prepare for that also.

Columbus Day (an annual post)

It is Columbus Day in the USA, which commemorates the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, Admiral of the Ocean Sea (1451-1506). Americans are still allowed to remember Columbus, if they choose, but fear not, Columbus Day will disappear into the liberal memory hole, or go the way of Washington's Birthday (folded into generic, anonymous, obnoxious "President's Day"), soon enough.

The great sailor's role in the American story was perhaps small, but certainly decisive. Legions of the politically correct despise the memory of Columbus, his voyages and his culture, never mind that many of them walk the streets spouting their nonsense only because the Admiral found San Salvador on 12 October 1492 (although it was clear he was near land on the 11th). The value of a man may often be gauged by the political enemies he has made; and the fact that so many Right-Thinking Lefties people dislike Columbus so much is enough reason to think he must have been quite a fellow.

Some say he was born in Genoa, others that he was born in Calvi, Corsica. If the latter, he was probably the most distinguished native of that island save Napoléon I. Son of a weaver, and already a distinguished sailor when he began his American voyage, he hoped to find a practicable route to India, but found a new world instead – and his discovery changed everything.

The European discovery of America was the biggest event in western civilization since the fall of Rome, and changed the whole world. The future existence of the United States was only one consequence of his voyages. His voyages were made in barely seaworthy leaky vessels, with abominable food and mutinous crews.

In recent years, Columbus has suffered from the slanders, slings and arrows of the stupid, the ignorant, and the outright malicious, and all of the other enemies of civilisation who gather under the soiled banners of leftism and “political correctness.” The memory and record of the Admiral are themselves ample defense from the insults of this mob, and Columbus's reputation will survive long after today's philistine lefties have crawled back under their rocks, and back into their midden-pits, to die.

Columbus’s nautical achievements, and the whole colonial experiment, were indubitably worth it. Columbus, and the other heroes of the colonization of the Americas need no special commeration. If you seek their monuments, look around you. The riches of the Americas, in the short run, enabled Europe to prosper, maintain itself and expand in the face of challenges from Asia and the Islamic world. In the long run, the successful implantation of European colonies in the New World, particularly in North America, ensured that civilization came to these shores, and Europe’s American children, would, in due course, be a credit to all that was good in their parents.

Finally, thanks in some part to Columbus and his sailors, in the Old World’s darkest hour, Europe’s children of the New World stepped forward to redeem the Old World from bondage and tyranny. No doubt Columbus, who sought a new route to Asia so that Europeans could carry on lawful commerce despite the Muslim blockade and harassment of Europe, would understand and sympathize with the struggles of the American soldiers of today, carrying the banners of America and civilization in Baghdad and Kabul in the struggle against the Islamo-fascist peril.

After Columbus’s initial voyage to America, he made three further trips to these shores, dying two years after the return from his fourth voyage. The authorities still argue whether he is buried in Seville (Spain), or in Santo Domingo. Thanks be to you Admiral, and to all your officers and sailors, for all you did.

Spies (2)

The espionage case I blogged about a couple of weeks back has taken a rather bizarre turn. The accused spy, Leandro Aragoncillo, former US Marine, was at one time assigned to US Vice Presidents Dick Cheney and Al Gore. The criminal complaint against this villain allges that between May and August he either printed or downloaded 101 classified documents pertaining to the Philippines, of which 37 were classified “Secret” or higher.

More information, also, has surfaced about the putative spy’s employer. Mr. Aragoncillo’s contact and probable controller, Michael Ray Aquino, is allied with Filipino leftist factions seeking to unseat current Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

I don’t care, that much, what happens to Mr. Aquino or the spy’s Filipino bosses, provided the Philippines government cooperates fully with our investigation. We give the Philippines enough military and foreign aid to expect their eager and enthusiastic cooperation with our efforts, now that it appears Mr. Aquino was not working for his government. No doubt our ambassador and other diplomats have given, or will give, the Philippines counter-espionage and police authorities their marching orders soon enough, and they will certainly be complied with. Something seems to be happening on this front already, their Justice Secretary (equivalent of the US Attorney General), says that certain targets of the US investigation who are in the Philippines will be extradited upon request.

But that’s a Philippines problem. Mr. Aragoncillo’s ours. This wretch, and any other Americans who helped him, ought to hang or have something equally ghastly happen to them if they’re convicted.

Brief aside: I don’t like spies much. A personal failing of mine. They’re about on a level with child-rapists with me. This applies to our spies too. No, I don't mean CIA employees working (sometimes at great personal risk) to ferret out things we need to know; or Russian Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki (SVR) guys, or British MI6 people, or whoever, doing the same things for their countries. Those people are patriots. Sometimes they are enemies of ours, but that doesn't necessarily make them evil. I mean the other end of the food-chain -- the inside operators, the turncoats, the people stealing the documents -- people inside our camp, or inside somebody else's who are selling out their own country for money, ideology or whatever.

I know spies are a necessary evil and often useful, but I just don’t think it’s cricket to sell-out your own side. I find a lack of national loyalty repulsive. Two days before the Battle of Ligny, on 14 June 1815, a French general named Bourmont, a royalist, defected from the French army to the Prussian Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher’s Prussian army, betraying Napoleon’s plans to the enemy. The old Prussian general turned the pestiferous traitor over to his staff, who learned what they needed to know, but Blucher refused to be in the same room with the traitor, acknowledge him, or shake his hand: saying something to the effect of “A dog is always a dog, no matter whose damn flag he waves.” Blucher hated Napoleon’s guts, but he knew a scumbag traitor for what he was when he saw one.

As for the Aragoncillo business, the question must be asked: how did this person get past the counterintelligence vetting process ? How was he handling classified documents over a period of months, without being apprehended? Don’t they polygraph people at the White House ? Snoop into their e-mail ? Check their bank statements, review their lifestyle ? Look into their personal phone-calls, friends, associates ? When you work with classified materials, you’re supposed to give up privacy.

The FBI needs to go back through the White House organization, especially during the period of this Aragoncillo’s employment, top to bottom. If this guy was there, is there anybody else ?

Save the Sharks !

Terrible News ! An urgent dispatch from Moonbat Central ! Irish, Norwegian and British marine experts claim Spanish fisherman are “devastating stocks of deep-water sharks in the northeast Atlantic,” because they are using “wasteful and unregulated” fishing techniques, the AP reports.

I’m sure the Galactic Regulators will be right on the case, protecting those helpless sharks. Maybe they can fly PETA, Cindy Sheehan, Kanye West (whoever he is), and all the other Great and Good out there, and dump em smack-dab in the middle of the North Atlantic, to protect those endangered sharks.

Okay, I’m confused. Devastating the deep-water sharks is a bad thing ? Seems like we ought to be pinning medals on the Spanish fishermen.

Harriet Miers

I confess to being underwhelmed about President Bush’s nomination of Harriet Miers to the vacancy on the Supreme Court. But I was yawning about the nomination of Chief Justice Roberts as well, and I have a much more favorable impression of him today than when the hearings process began.

Ms. Miers would not have been my own choice, and probably not that of most other conservatives, either. But it’s done now, the nomination has been made and it is time to support the President’s choice. I have criticisms of the President, but in the main, I like him, trust his judgment, and have generally agreed with his policy choices, and I approve of most of his personnel. President Bush has, so far, been right on most of the big things, and I am prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt here, at least until we hear from Ms. Miers. Conservatives should quit the carping, the wailing and the gnashing of teeth, and exercise a little patience.

The chips are down. The liberals, the media and the foreigners think they have our President, and our country, on the run. There’s a war on, and the political strength of the administration is directly related to our ability to successfully prosecute it. Yeah, there are legitimate gripes to be made, but lets not lose sight of what is important. President Bush needs our support now, and no purpose whatever is served by division within our own ranks. Moaning about what might have been only helps our domestic and foreign enemies.

UPDATE (4 Oct. 2005). Have a look at Beldar's posts (here, here, here, and here), on Ms. Miers' qualifications, and some misrepresentations by her detractors over at Beldar Blog. These should be reassuring to most persons who have doubts as to Ms. Miers' s qualifications. Beldar's both a Texas trial lawyer, and a solid law blogger whose opinions on this subject are worth attention.

Defects in the American Constitutional System

Now that President Bush has made his first successful selection for the Supreme Court, it is a fitting time to consider the Constitution that the Supreme Court often construes. This will not be the usual Fourth of July rah-rah about the Constitution’s being the oldest functioning written constitution, or its role in guaranteeing our liberties, etc., etc.

All of this is of course broadly true; but our Constitutional system is not without problems or defects: most of which are the product of social, political and technological developments unforeseen in 1787, or of later amendments to the document, and/or faulty construction of the founding document by the Supreme Court. Also, some of what in fact comprises the constitutional “system” of the United States is not part of the written constitution, but has developed alongside of it, and although unwritten, product of judicial decision, or a creature of statutory law, is nevertheless in fact part of our Constitution.

I have been thinking on this subject for awhile, and it seems to me, that the American constitutional system, as it has developed, is open to criticism on at least the following points:

1). Term of office. Presidential terms are too short, and the 22nd Amendment's prohibition on re-election after two terms creates a lame duck. A six-year term with infinite re-eligibility for re-election would be better. The electorate is wise enough to determine for itself when a politican's usefulness has ceased. Similar criticism can be leveled at the short terms of members of the House of Representatives. Two years is barely enough time to learn the job, let alone accomplish anything. Four year terms would be better.

2). Power of the Federal Courts. In practice, the federal courts have acquired an excessive degree of power, at the expense of the political branches (the President and Congress). Primarily this has been because of the incorporation doctrine and its various permutations extending the Bill of Rights to the States, and the increased willingness to find congressional enactments unconstitutional to achieve results perceived as desirable.

3). Power of the Bar. A contributing factor to the problem in No. 2 has been the excessive power of the Bar, which is driven by the ease of litigation. Litigation is too easy because of (1) the contingent fee system, which makes it excessively affordable to litigate, because if a claim proves to be a bad one, the litigants bear their own attorney’s fees, (and the plaintiff loser often doesn’t have to pay the winner defendant’s), which removes the incentive to be selective about claims. Bad investments are made up for by the great payoff of a successful action (where the loser defendant does often pay the winner plaintiff’s attorney’s fees, one way or another – because the attorney collects, often, 33 percent of the recovery, sometimes more. Also (2), even bad claims can be prohibitively expensive (or good claims take too long to resolve) because of the bias towards giving almost everybody a jury trial.

4). Common Law. Another contributing factor is the common law legal system, which, although flexible, affords too much power to judges (unelected in the Federal system). A civil law judge (as in Europe, Latin America or Louisiana) has his discretion strictly limited by the written terms of a statute, which he is bound to interpret strictly and literally, and his interpretations are usually subject to being overturned by the legislature. Also, courts have no inherent powers, unlike the case here (see the note on equity, below). In our system, unwritten customary law and the ability to interpret the law allows judges to produce results they consider desirable, whatever the intentions of the legislative bodies – and this can be stretched with the inherent power of contempt. Both liberal and conservative judges have been able to engage in what they consider desirable social engineering, in a manner that would be unthinkable in, say, the French, system.

5). Equity Jurisdiction. All of this is related to the persisting existence of the species of remedial justice known as “equity” and equitable remedies. (For non-legal readers: “Equity” is a historical curiosity of English jurisprudence, and defines a series of remedies available to courts that are independent of or existing alongside “law” where courts have wide discretion to formulate relief (e.g. injunction) independent of the statutes or the common law. It used to be executed by its own system of courts. It was a by-product of the struggles between the kings, the nobles, and what became Parliament).

The merger of equity powers into regular courts of law, alongside the development of judicial review – the self-declared power of the courts to determine what is and what is not constitutional -- make the courts, as distinguished from Congress, the final arbiters of political and economic power in the American system. Federal judges are not elected and in practical terms are not accountable or responsible to the people, who are in theory sovereign. The Federal Bench is the equivalent of an American House of Lords.

6). The Decline of Federalism. Federalism has been a dead letter since the Civil War. This is partly because of the increased power of the executive and its attached bureaucracy, which occurred primarily because of the world wars, and because of the courts (see no. 2). The courts have accelerated this process. Much of the police and regulatory power seized by the Federal government intrudes into matters best left to the States -- such as abortion, and sundry less-visible issues such as the 55 mph speed limit.

7). The Senate. The abolition by the 17th Amendment of the indirect election of Senators by the State legislatures was pernicious, because it ensured that local oligarchies and power arrangements went un-represented in Congress. The House of Representatives is directly elected by the people, and ensures their representation in the legislative process. Directly electing the Senators short-changes the people, because it creates a second chamber of politicos more beholden to Washington lobbies than the lobbies back home. If indirect election of the Senate was bad, why not just abolish the Senate entirely ?

8). Increased reach of Federal Powers. This has occurred primarily via the abuse of implied powers by the Federal Government to enact legislation for which it has no competence. Again, driven by the world wars, and abetted by the courts. The 14th Amendment – used by the courts to extend the bill of rights to the States, has also helped.

9). The Media. The power of the electronic media, particularly television has expanded to such a degree as to actually threaten the ability of those governed to protect their own liberties, and it interferes with the power of the duly elected officials to accomplish anything at all. I am not writing primarily of the newspapers – although their political positions and instincts are the same as electronic media, they have less influence. I really am referring to television. The rise of the electronic media was not contemplated in 1787, but the power of the media is very real, is largely unaccountable, and permits powers and interests that are not politically accountable or responsible to exercise political power.

We now have an un-elected “opinion” oligarchy, which in alliance with academia, often exploits the ignorance of the public for the promotion of a liberal, and anti-national, agenda, on matters which favor its own interests. The media also operates to subvert or dictate support for particular policy choices made by elected officials. The electronic media is in fact a fourth branch of government, more powerful than the other three combined. It is not elected and cannot be held responsible, even for slander.

10.) Vetoes. The US constitution suffers from the lack of a line-item veto, at least for appropriations, and the lack of a requirement that all bills before Congress be limited to one subject, which combine to permit logrolling to an excessive degree. Prior to the Nixon era, the Presidents got round this by the use of “impoundment” – that is, acting to avoid expenditure of appropriated funds for projects they deemed unworthy, but the Supreme Court has since held this to be unconstitutional.

11). Civil Service. The creation of a professional civil service, (in lieu of the “spoils system”) which precludes punishment of unpopular bureaucrats by election of a new administration has operated to remove power from the people and their elected officials. Prior to civil service reform in the late 19th Century, a new President or new party in power could remove all the Federal bureaucrats and appoint its own. The modern civil service system insulates the bureaucracy from political pressures, thus giving it a great deal of unchecked political power – particularly combined with sovereign immunity – the inability, except under very limited circumstances, of citizens to sue government officials.

12). Regulatory Authority. The ability of the bureaucracy to interpret and enforce statutes by the promulgation of regulations amplifies the problem in No. 11. (e.g., the regulations established by the EPA, the FDA, the IRS, Homeland Security – take your pick). These may be useful and necessary, but they have the force of law, can result in fines, jail time, etc, and are issued by bodies that are un-elected and are not accountable to the people. The Constitution contemplates that the President shall see that the laws are executed (Art. II, § 1), and this would cover the issuance of regulations. However it is not contemplated that un-elected bureaucrats, not accountable to the president, should issue such regulations. This represents what appears to be an illegal delegation of legislative powers of Congress, and executive powers of the President. This has been upheld, (I believe wrongly), by the Supreme Court.

Interesting Supreme Court Choice Generator

If I were asked to pick a Supreme Court justice, my own choice would be either Priscilla Owen or William Pryor, but after taking this quiz at the National Review Online website, I wouldn't mind this choice either.

JUDGE JANICE ROGERS BROWNU.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit, appointed by G.W. Bush, born 1949. Judge Brown's nomination to the federal bench from the California Supreme Court was dislodged when the "Gang of Fourteen" decided not to filibuster people anymore. Don't think the same thing would happen if she were elevated to SCOTUS! Think Clarence Thomas!

New World Man presents: My favorite candidate for the Supreme Court
brought to you by

Escaping Rita

Thanks be to God, and to a high pressure area over Texas which providentially hung around, the whole Houston-Galveston area seems to have dodged a catastrophe. Wind and rain here at present, but nothing like Allison, several years back. Some small branches down. Electricity still on at Casa El Jefe.

Rita Onshore

It's about 3:30 a.m., and apparently, Rita came on shore an hour ago, just east of Sabine Pass. Some rain here, and pretty windy, but I do not see blown branches and such yet. Showers are intermittent, and there is no accumulation. Family is asleep, and appears not to have even noticed Rita's appearance. Hopefully that remains the case.

Rita's Vedettes

Some light rain, and the same light breezes noted earlier, commencing about 2120 (9:20 p.m.), but nothing else here so far. Waiting for the 10:00 p.m. update from the NOAA, and then will sleep some if nothing has changed. Will update as the situation warrants.

UPDATE (2153) : A glance at the Lake Charles radar seems to indicate that Rita is moving a bit faster than suggested by previous reports, and has adopted a somewhat more northerly track than previously thought. It looks to me like the eye of Rita will come ashore just east of Sabine Pass, about Johnson's Bayou, Louisiana, or a little to the west of that place, perhaps a little after midnight (Central time).

Waiting for Rita

Shortly after noon, the sun disappered, and the sky began clouding up. Wind is up slightly. No rain yet, but I expect some in the next hour or so, judging from the radar images. Looks as if Port Arthur will get the brunt of Rita: landfall of the eye is expected about 1 a.m. tomorrow, she has sped up in the past couple of hours.

We have made what preparations we can, and are just waiting. In Casa El Jefe dinner is being prepared. Houston seems deserted, judging from the news programing, and reports from friends about town. No gas, no groceries, and everything closed.

The freeway mess from last night seems to have been cleared up. Good, I have been pleased that the state, local and county authorities, and the Department of Public Safety seem to be on top of their jobs. Texas ain't Louisiana.

I will continue to make entries when there is something of interest to report. The wind has gotten more audible outside the windows in the brief time that I have been writing this.

On the Eve ?

We have just arrived home from dinner with several of the neighbors. Sort of a pre-Rita party, to eat up all the consumables requiring refrigeration. Some wine, and of course Margaritas, to drink to Rita's ill health.

We have worked hard to get ready. Supplies are assembled. We have built a little fort in the house, SWMBO has assembled the papers, and organized the food, we have from five to six days food and water. batteries, flashlights, fire extinguishers. Pick-ax for debris, tools, food for the cats. We have one car with a full tank of fuel, the other with half to three quarters after our odyssey of this morning.

I have made sure the garage door is accessable without power. The windows are the weak point in our defenses, we do not have wood, and none is available. Pictures are down, and there are a few more objects to move from near the windows in the morning (mostly my book collection), but I think we're about as ready as can be. God grant it be enough.

To bed, for tomorrow will be a long day.

Calm for the Moment

Back at Casa El Jefe we have been gathering the supplies and preparing an area (a downstairs bathroom) for SWMBO, the Heir, El Jefe and the High Patroness cats to ride out Rita, if she comes calling.

Gasoline, as well as plywood, flashlight batteries, bottled water, etc., is pretty much finished in our part of Houston (West University), inside the 610 Loop. Inasmuch as the State transportation officials have double-sided IH-45 and IH-10 out-bound, I don't think much in the way of supplies will be coming into the city while the evacuation proceeds. Refineries are shut down so that their personnel may seek shelter and be with their families. Biggest lesson I've learned so far is to leave at the first whiff of trouble, and not to wait for official pronouncements. Those who took vacation time Monday or found ways to leave early Tuesday mostly made it safely.

The biggest problem confronting the disaster planners presently, (as you may have gathered from my last post), is the situation on the jammed freeways. Houston Traffic Report shows all outbound freeways north and west still jammed with persons fleeing Houston/Galveston, as they were this morning. It is easy now to second-guess the evacuation planners (State of Texas, Texas Department of Transportation, Texas Department of Public Safety), but also unfair: they're doing the best they can, it's just a huge logistical problem to drain out a city of 1 milllion (Galveston) by passing its citizens through another threatened city of 4 million (us). I suspect all us voluntary evacuators who learned our Katrina lessons too well completely bollixed-up the mandatory evacuation from Galveston and the coast: instead of a million people on the road, it was probably more like 2.5 million.

I wonder how wise the plan is to open up both sides of the freeway to outbound traffic ? This smacks of a counsel of desperation to me. All this will do is compound the problem and create two jammed-up portions of freeway with fuel problems instead of one. I think they should use the local police forces, county sheriffs and the DPS to, on the west, close up inbound freeway access ramps from Katy (westside of Houston) to Columbus and ,on the north, from Conroe to Madisonville, and use 45 and 10 just to drain Houston west on IH-10 (with no turns till Columbus), north on IH-45, (no turns till Madisonville), and move the coastal areas west of Houston/Galveston out on the other state highways east of Columbus northwards. But I believe it's a mistake to use the inbound side for moving Houston/Galveston folks out. They need the inbound side to move tanker trucks and supplies, most especially fresh water stores, not to mention the troops. This is another reason we aren't going to be able to get more gas and supplies here, because they are compounding the problem with the evacuation.

Meanwhile, news reports this afternoon tell of hundreds stranded on the roads without fuel, or with mechanical problems north and west of Houston, with local police and DPS trying to distribute what fuel there is...and night is coming on. Many of these persons are no-doubt armed, (big run on firearms in Houston this week). In its photo gallery, the Houston Chronicle has a picture of somebody filling a 55 gallon drum with gasoline before getting onto the road. I hope that gentleman makes it to where he's going without anybody realizing he has a drum full of gas. All in all, a combustable mix of circumstances on the roads this evening.

Rita is going to be here tomorrow, sometime, looks like. Most of El Jefe's neighbors have stayed, and I expect we will get together for a bit of a dinner party this evening to eat and drink good things and perishable items before the coming days of broken glass and canned goods. El Jefe will post on anything new tonight, although I don't expect much. I will relate news as it comes up, and expect to take my laptop into our hidey-hole, when the action starts. Will try to post as long as I have power.

Stuck

We appear to be stuck in Houston.

We left the palatial El Jefe residence in the West University area about 2:30 a.m., made good time out Bellaire to Fondren, then to Westheimer, then to FM 1093. Got stuck, about 3:15 a.m. on Grand Parkway (was the jam there, or the jam that developed on that part of 1093), and we chose Grand Parkway.

Stuck there until 5:15 a.m., when we found a side road that eventually led us to I-10. I-10 west is simply stopped dead, from roughly Grand Parkway to Beltway 8, as we found when we gave up and headed back in, despite the fact we had noted the storm's turn towards Galveston.

Reason for heading back is at the rate we were going, I'm not sure we could have even gotten to Columbus without running out of gas, and there was no assurance of more fuel. Although, I thought we and the cats would be okay for however long the trip took. I was worried about the strain on our vehicle -- if it overheated, or there was a wreck, we'd be toast. Finally, lots of wacked-out, grumpy people on the road. Saw bunches of stalls and overheated vehicles, and at least one accident. There are going to be some incidents if the traffic situation persists.

We had talked about going to I-59 and just heading for Laredo, and I'm still wondering if that was not a bad plan. I suspect at first light there's going to be something of a panic here.

I guess we're riding it out here, unless another opportunity comes up to get out, which I seriously doubt. We have water, supplies for a few days, and will fort up in either the downstairs bathroom or next to the stairs.

Go Away Rita

No blogging for the next week or so, as El Jefe temporarly relocates his capital. A very nasty lady named Rita is approaching, so El Jefe, the Heir, SWMBO, the High Patronesses MILO, FLINKY and SUNSHINE, along with the elite regiments of El Jefe's Goomba Guards, the Priests, the Mistresses, the Imperial Treasury, the wine stores and his cast of thousands are departing for the provinces, to visit and comfort the loyal subjects.

Good-bye till better times, hopefully in a week.

The Bloodiest Day

Headquarters, Alexandria & Leesburg Road
Near Dranesville
September 3, 1862

Mr. President:
The present seems to be the most propitious time since the commencement of the war for the Confederate Army to enter Maryland. The two grand armies of the United States that have been operating in Virginia, though now united, are much weakened and demoralized. Their new levies of which I understand sixty thousand men have already been posted in Washington, are not yet organized, and will take some time to prepare for the field…

The army is not properly equipped for an invasion of an enemy’s territory. It lacks much of the material of war, is feeble in transportation, the animals being much reduced, and the men are poorly provided with clothes and in thousands of instances are destitute of shoes. Still, we cannot afford to be idle, and though weaker than our opponents in men and in military equipments, must endeavor to harass, if we cannot destroy them. I am aware the movement is attended with much risk…

…If the Quartermaster Department can furnish any shoes, it would be the greatest relief.

We have entered upon September, and the nights are becoming cool. . .

R.E. Lee
Genl

General Robert E. Lee to President Jefferson Davis, 8 Septeber 1862 (from Dowdey, Manarin, The Wartime Papers of Robert E. Lee, Da Capo 1961, p. 294).

Headquarters, Near Fredricktown, Maryland
September 8, 1862

Mr. President:
The present posture of affairs, in my opinion, places it in the power of the Government of the Confederate States to propose with propriety to that of the United States the recognition of our independence…

R.E. Lee
Genl Comdg.

Lee to Davis, (Papers, at p. 301).

Today is the 143rd anniversary of the Battle of Sharpsburg, known in the north as Antietam, the bloodiest day on the North American continent. No American armies ever assembled contended for such high stakes as their brothers who fought and died this day near the Maryland town of Sharpsburg, hard by Antietam Creek, so many years ago Overshadowed in the popular imagination by Gettysburg, Sharpsburg, a tactical draw, but strategically, a defeat for the South, deprived the fledgling Confederate States of its best possibility of military victory. After Sharpsburg, foreign diplomatic recognition and help for the South’s struggle for independence was exceedingly unlikely.

Southern morale was sky-high in the summer of 1862, at least in the east. After a series of disasters following First Manassas, in the winter of 1861-62, the Confederacy found itself some generals. Robert E. Lee saved the Confederacy’s capital at Richmond, Virginia from a much larger US force under the talented, but slow, George B. McClellan. Meanwhile, in the Shenandoah Valley, the tiny Valley Army, under Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, beat the Yankees again and again, and briefly threatened Washington, or so the hard-pressed Lincoln administration thought.

From 28-30 August 1862, Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia won perhaps its greatest victory at Second Manassas. Defeat at the very gates of Washington shocked and embarrassed the Lincoln administration, and its policy of forcing the Southern states at gunpoint back into the Union they wanted to leave teetered on the brink of ruin. In Britain, William Gladstone, chancellor of the exchequer, told a Newcastle audience that southerners had “made a nation.” In Paris, the Confederacy’s strongest foreign friend, Emperor Napoléon III, told his foreign ministry to open quiet talks with England on joint diplomatic recognition of the Confederacy. For once, both diplomatic and military momentum seemed to be moving in favor of the South.

Under these circumstances, Lee’s decision to move north was a no-brainer, particularly given the General’s knowledge, which jumps out of his papers and correspondence, of the South’s dismal long term military prospects. Lee fully recognized the superiority of his enemies in “numbers, resources, and all the means and appliances for carrying on the war” and warned his President that “we have no right to look for exemptions from the military consequences of a vigorous use of these advantages.” Moving north and beating the enemy on his own soil raised the odds of foreign support, boosted Southern morale, and damaged enemy morale; relieving the Southern home front from the pressure of invading enemy armies, and giving Northern civilians a small taste of what their armies dished-out all over the South.

Still, the campaign was, as Lee and his President knew, a giant gamble. During the first days of September, as the tough Confederate infantry moved down the roads of northern Virginia, across the Potomac and into US territory, problems were readily apparent. Southern industry was simply not up to properly equipping the army. Lee’s force was in part shoeless, clad in rags with only coincidental resemblance to uniforms, largely armed and equipped with enemy weapons and supplies scavenged from the victorious battlefields of that summer. (Lee’s correspondence during this period shows a preoccupation with guarding the site of the Manassas victory, and hauling away the huge quantities of abandoned Yankee supplies and arms).

Also, the army was organizationally cumbersome: no formal Corps structure yet existed; its over-large divisions informally divided into two wings too large for the wing commanders, Longstreet and Jackson, to really handle. Still, in the annals of American war, finer troops never bore arms, and in Longstreet, Jackson, the Hills, Hood, Early, and legions of others, the Confederates had a splendid band of commanders.

The amazing run of victories that summer produced another problem: continuously marching and fighting since March, the army was completely exhausted, and in need of a spell in camp to rest, re-equip and absorb replacements. Replacements, that is, such as there were. Unlike its bigger, richer foe, the Confederate States was already scraping the bottom of its manpower barrel, which further explains Lee’s determination to try to end the war quickly. But General Lee was pushing his force to its physical limit. The long marches, combined with utter exhaustion and poor supplies produced rampant straggling. Lee’s army, already seriously under-strength, numbered no more that 55,000, and he could not assemble more than 45,000 for the Battle of Sharpsburg.

The campaign began well enough. With the main northern armies camped around Washington, Lee moved into central Maryland, around Frederick. His plan seems to have been much the same as he used in the Gettysburg campaign the next year, to move into Pennsylvania, drawing the US Army round Washington after him, and defeat it somewhere between Harrisburg and Gettysburg. However, the Yankees left a huge garrison at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, isolated and vulnerable, and Lee sent Stonewall Jackson to pounce on it. The US garrison there surrendered on 15 September – almost 12,000 troops going into Southern captivity. This was the largest mass surrender of a US Army until 1942.

To close the trap around Harper’s Ferry, Lee had to divide his already outnumbered army. Under pressure, the US Army of the Potomac moved out of Washington, in typical slow McClellan fashion, after Lee. The weak point of the Confederate military machine was administration, and this now came into play. In a field near Frederick, Maryland, (former campground of a CS Infantry Division), Private Barton W. Mitchell, 27th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, found a piece of paper wrapped around some cigars. The paper, a Confederate military dispatch, “Special Orders No. 191,” gave McClellan his opportunity: “I now know all the plans of the rebels,” McClellan complacently telegraphed Washington.

The “Lost Order,” one of the most consequential pieces of paper in American history, told McClellan exactly where all of Lee’s units were. Best of all for the North, Lee was completely ignorant of the fact that his enemies now knew his plans.

Napoleon probably could have won the whole war on the strength of that information. Lee had only 19,000 men available to McClellan’s 87,000 because Stonewall Jackson was still finishing with Harper’s Ferry. Fortunately, McClellan, as usual, was slow. However, he was able to force Lee to battle at Sharpsburg, on unfavorable ground, his back against the Potomac River, and with his army incompletely concentrated.

McClellan’s dithering delayed the battle for a full day, giving Jackson time to arrive from Harper’s Ferry. Still, when the battle began, at dawn on the morning of 17 September, Lee, who had managed to assemble about 35,000 troops, was outnumbered by over two to one.

Sharpsburg was really three separate battles, because McClellan was unable to get his army to make one, all out, coordinated attack. Had he been able to do so, Lee’s army would most probably have been completely destroyed. Instead, the different corps of the Union army attacked, more or less in sequence, separately, from the north end of the field to the south. McClellan never engaged more than two of his six corps at a time. The Confederates, better commanded, used all of their troops. The slaughter defies description. 8,000 men were killed or wounded in the initial dawn attack alone. With rivers on both flanks of the battlefield, Sharpsburg was fought out as a series of bloody frontal assaults at places called “the Cornfield,” “Bloody Lane,” “Burnside’s Bridge,” the “West Woods.”

Fighting was hand-to-hand at many places. The Cornfield changed hands fifteen times that day. Several times, the Union troops were on the verge of breaking through the Confederate lines, but each time were repulsed short of their objectives, with horrific casualties on both sides. "Where is your division ?" John Bell Hood was asked. "Dead in the Cornfield," his reply. "Lee's army was ruined," the Confederate artilleryman Porter Alexander later wrote, "and the end of the Confederacy was in sight." But somehow, the embattled, outnumbered Confederates held on, even counterattacking in places. However, by midday, the Confederates were on the ropes, exhausted, last reserves expended, generals and division staffs taking their places in the firing line. McClellan, fatally, hesitated, refraining from committing his last reserves, which would have shattered Lee's stricken center. To the soldiers, it seemed as if night would never come.

The battle ended in the early evening, about 5:30 p.m., with a last US effort to turn the Confederate right flank at Burnside’s bridge. For the only time during this long battle, observers noted Lee showing signs of real anxiety, anxiously looking southwest, towards Harpers Ferry, for his last division, A.P. Hill's, en route from that place. Fortunately for the Southerners, Hill's troops arrived in the nick of time.

Although the battle was a tactical draw, it was a strategic defeat for the South, because McClellan’s disjointed, uncoordinated attacks had hurt Lee’s army bad enough to force him to withdraw during the night. The Southern retreat south of the Potomac completely overshadowed the mass surrender at Harper’s Ferry, and possibly prevented foreign diplomatic recognition of the Confederacy.

Despite this, the stand at Sharpsburg of Robert E. Lee’s greatly outnumbered Army of Northern Virginia, was, in my opinion, the Confederate Army’s finest hour. 2,100 US soldiers, and 1,500 CS soldiers died that day. Adding wounded, missing and prisoners on both sides, casualties totaled nearly 25,000. The Civil War was not decided at Sharpsburg – the fall of Atlanta, two years later, did that. But the last chance of the South to outright win the war, as opposed to surviving an attritional struggle, died at Sharpsburg.