"J.E.B. Stuart Memorial Cavalry Raid Through Baghdad"

[Guest]

From James F. Dunnigan's Strategy Page

"The wags are already calling it the "Jeb Stuart Memorial Cavalry Raid through Baghdad". The 60 vehicle raid, which included 27 Abrams battle tanks and 10 Bradley fighting vehicles, was intended to send a psychological message to Baghdad's civilians and defenders, that Coalition forces were capable of going into go into city to inflict pain on Saddam's loyalists and also made the Iraqi government's claims that the Americans were still 100 kilometers away look ridiculous. The 3rd ID's three-hour long "Thunder Run" towards central Baghdad was also meant to force Republican Guard units to expose their positions, when the 1/64th Armor Battalion raced straight north into the city on the Tigris River's west bank."

"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat."

[sharpfive 0]

That's ironic. They are associating an army of liberators with a man who fought to defend a system of enslavement and repression?

[PhillyKev 0]

The majority of Southern military commanders were actually opposed to slavery. They fought to defend the sovereignty and freedom of the state they lived in. Still ironic...but in a different way.

[sharpfive 0]

Yes, we've heard all of that before. Maybe it would be more fitting to recall those who put freedom above sovereignty. That seemed to be the crux of the debate at the U.N.

[Guest]

Quote

That's ironic. They are associating an army of liberators with a man who fought to defend a system of enslavement and repression?

It's possible to respect and admire a military leader's prowess and fighting skill without necessarily advocating the political system he fought for. Erwin Rommel is a classic example of this. That his tactics are admired and studied at West Point does not make de facto Nazis of USMA cadets, except in coffee houses in Berkeley.

edit to add "Berkeley" barb

"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat."

[quatorze 1]

just a tid bit, emancipation didn't become a Union objective until Lincoln began losing support for the war in New England and the only way to bring them back into the fold was to play on their devout Christian beliefs. He was actually quoted as saying just prior to the war that he had no intention and never would to change the status quo. Granted slavery was a wrong dark time in American history but your high school history books are BS. Mary Todd Lincoln (the first lady) her family owned slaves. 5 states in the Union passed laws that no black man free or slave could enter the state, and the second largest slave owner in the state of SC was a black lady in Beaufort, who owned over 2,000 slaves. But as we all know the winner gets to write the history books

I'm not afriad of dying, I'm afraid of never really living- Erin Engle

[jdhill 0]

Just to add... the emancipation proclamation only emancipated the slaves from the confederate states, not those in the union.

Josh

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. - Edmund Burke

[luv2jump 0]

Maybe SHARPFIVE should do some reading so he can find out what the war was REALLY about! Slavery my A$$ !!!!! Had to be a government school graduate?

[sharpfive 0]

Never went to a public school in my life. The legacy of the war was one hundred years of Jim Crow. Nobody who has read anything about the conflict would say it slavery was the compelling issue. But the rhetoric from the rebels made it obvious it was one of the keys. The seditionists lost, get over it.

[sharpfive 0]

It freed the slaves in the confederate states, but initially only in areas NOT controlled by the Union.

[Guest]

Quote

Never went to a public school in my life. The legacy of the war was one hundred years of Jim Crow. Nobody who has read anything about the conflict would say it slavery was the compelling issue. But the rhetoric from the rebels made it obvious it was one of the keys. The seditionists lost, get over it.

Yes, they did, but until J.E.B. Stuart died, he ran rings around the Federals, and made them look silly. That was part of the message of the original post.

Hell, even al-Jazeera doesn't buy the Iraqi propaganda anymore.

When the Iraqi "Information Minister" has to hold a press conference outdoors (because the information ministry building was captured by the US), and journalists can see American tanks with their own eyes, it's starting to sound ridiculous, even to America-hating Arabs.

"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat."

[sharpfive 0]

He was a brilliant tactician indeed, and you can come out here and walk the same fields he did. Mosby wreaked havoc around here, too. That said, your point was not lost on me, I just get fired up about the subject.

Peace

The Iraqi Information Minister will still be claiming victory as they slip the noose around his neck.