1812

[jackdale]

Next year is the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812.

A new PBS documentary, airing Monday night on all of the U.S. network’s affiliates serving the Canadian market, is a useful primer for citizens of both countries on the eve of the bicentennial.

The War of 1812 tells the story of the conflict from four perspectives. The Canadians were triumphant, the Americans in denial, the natives in mourning for their lost chance at statehood and the British more preoccupied with fighting Napoleon than protecting their far-off colony.

The documentary’s plain packaging makes one wonder what a romantic like filmmaker Ken Burns might have done with the subject. But the film accomplishes something: You come out of it wanting to know more.

Historians consider the war a “draw” because the Treaty of Ghent that ended it entrenched the status quo ante bellum. But the truth is, the Americans sought to engulf us; instead they bankrupted their own country (the United States defaulted on its debt) without gaining an inch of territory. That doesn’t sound like a draw.

The Americans thought their kin who made their way north after the Revolutionary War would, along with the French-Canadians, take up arms against the British. They were fatally mistaken.

In fact, the war was an early example of how Americans have often been their own worst enemies in foreign affairs. The 1810 election to Congress of the so-called War Hawks, led by Henry Clay of Kentucky and John Calhoun of South Carolina, led to calls for a more muscular response to the blockade imposed by the British, which sought to prevent U.S. trade with France, and the impressment of American sailors by the Royal Navy.

How invading Canada was supposed to resolve those irritants is as much of a mystery today as it was then to the countless Americans who opposed the war, particularly the citizens of New England.

“Public opinion, united and strong, is not with you in your Canada project,” a young Daniel Webster told Congress. “You are, you say, at war for maritime rights and free trade. But they see you lock up your commerce and abandon the ocean. They see you invade the interior province of the enemy.”

If Americans remember the war at all, it is for the birth of the Star-Spangled Banner and Dolly Madison’s heroic rescuing of a portrait of George Washington from a White House in flames.

The collective amnesia may be one reason the War of 1812 would not be the last time the Americans went into a battle without clearly defining their objectives or crafting an exit strategy.

As Georges Santyana said ...

[SlowButSteady]

As a Canadian colleague once pointed out to me, "Think you won the war of 1812? Who had to keep Detroit? 'Nuff said."

[bljones]

We don't start many wars...
but we finish every damn one.
Romeo Dellaire's cowardice in Rwanda notwithstanding. But that was a "peacekeeping operation" not a war, so it doesn't count.

"1812- The reason the White House is white.'

[SloopJonB]

Originally Posted by bljones

We don't start many wars...
but we finish every damn one.
Romeo Dellaire's cowardice in Rwanda notwithstanding. But that was a "peacekeeping operation" not a war, so it doesn't count.

"1812- The reason the White House is white.'

Before you slur someone like that, try and make sure you know what you're talking about, otherwise it is just plain old slander. Dallaire (note the spelling) was betrayed by his political masters - they sent him in and then made it impossible for him to do the job.

Do a little reading before you slander a brave man who was nearly driven mad by the situation he was in and the cowardly politicians who dropped him in it.

[WanderingStar]

Canada was in the war of 1812?? )
Seriously, I mostly remember it for Baltimore Clippers.

[bljones]

Originally Posted by SloopJonB

Before you slur someone like that, try and make sure you know what you're talking about, otherwise it is just plain old slander. Dallaire (note the spelling) was betrayed by his political masters - they sent him in and then made it impossible for him to do the job.

Do a little reading before you slander a brave man who was nearly driven mad by the situation he was in and the cowardly politicians who dropped him in it.

A brave SOLDIER defies his masters to do the right thing. He KNEW fellow peacekeepers and civilians were dying and he did nothing, then hid behind excuses. He was a bureaucrat, not a soldier. I've read his book, I've read the accounts of others, and I have met the man himself. A nice man, who saw some bad things, but that doesn't change the fact he did nothing.

The Belgian troopers who were slaughtered would probably have forgiven him for defying his bosses and the UN and squeezing off a few rounds.

[SloopJonB]

Originally Posted by WanderingStar

Canada was in the war of 1812?? )
Seriously, I mostly remember it for Baltimore Clippers.

Most Americans don't know much about the war of 1812 because we won it.

[Alibaba]

Originally Posted by SlowButSteady

, "Think you won the war of 1812? Who had to keep Detroit? 'Nuff said."

If England had won the War of 1812, We may have National Healthcare today.

My fATHER, ww-2 VET oss/cia Communications officer, often joked about if England had won the Revolutionary war or war of 1812, IF Germany or Japan would of won WW-2 we would have National Health Care..

My Father never ment to Insult anyone, he was jus trying to make the point that the cost of Rebuilding Europe and Asia, disarming our former enemys and assuming the role of World Policeman (Anti Communisism) cost us a lot more money than Health care, especially when you consider many of these socialist countrys invest their weatlth in sociacal programs while the US bases protect them form aggession or invasion..

[bwalker42]

Originally Posted by bljones

We don't start many wars...
but we finish every damn one.
Romeo Dellaire's cowardice in Rwanda notwithstanding. But that was a "peacekeeping operation" not a war, so it doesn't count.

"1812- The reason the White House is white.'

bl, Could we please finish the war on drugs as it is so costly the bankers and media are afraid to let the public know how badly they have raped Americans, et all with it.
Legalize it for God's sake. We can put the Drug Czar in charge of quality control, end four decades of lies and government madness and oppression against their own people. The irony is they are doing this and making the people pay for it too. We are paying bankers and big government to terrorize us. Which needs to be called to a screeching halt!
Set our children free, they are going to need ptsd treatment as their personalities are non violent and have been put in with violently mentally ill demon possessed people. (judges profiteering off of kids)




(Thank you uncle sam for killing our kids and ruining lives. (KARMA, you reap what you sow. Let God arise and let His enemies be scattered.)
Can hardly wait for you to repent or be judged and put out of office by God Almighty.

Not saying this personally to you, or accusing you of this bl, I don't know you. I'm just saying, Uncle Sam.)

[bubb2]

Happy Thanksgiving to you Canucks. Now you can resume your delusions of wining the war of 1812.