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Freivalds: Draining the swamp (and Washington's other tall tales) |
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Published 2/18/2020
By John Freivalds
The Roanoke Times. Roanoke, Virginia
Freivalds runs an international communications firm in Lexington.
Donald Trump is not the first president promising that he would drain a swamp. Actually it was George Washington but it was not Washington D.C. — it was the Great Dismal Swamp in southern Virginia he promised to drain. We all look at Washington as the father of our country and able to walk on water and think only democratic celestial thoughts. But on the eve of his birthday (Feb. 22) it might be useful to look at the other things he was such as a land speculator, slave owner, and yes, a terrorist to get a full understanding of the man.
First the swamp. The Dismal Swamp Company was founded in 1763 to drain the Dismal Swamp and make profitable a wetland that stretches between Norfolk and North Carolina. The swamp still exists so if you want to go there take a canoe and lots of bug spray. The scheme appealed to the imagination of wealthy Virginians whose own lands were being depleted by growing of tobacco. Draining the swamp using slave labor (60 initially) proved a folly and it eventually turned a profit in 1810 from lumbering.
The tales about the American Revolution. It was more than just dumping tea in Boston Harbor. Today Americans are horrified by almost daily terrorist acts. Yet John Tierney of the Heritage Foundation explains it this way: “The outrage voiced by most Americans against guerilla kidnappings, ambushes and raids for example stand in contrast to approval and sanctioning air assaults against enemy positions including the atomic destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”
Besides terrorists are seldom considered “legitimate.” Michael Smith put this in perspective in writing “When Patriots are Terrorists.” George Washington was a terrorist. Were he a citizen of the United States, which did not then exist, he could be convicted of a felony and given life imprisonment. We know that Washington was a terrorist and not just a patriot because of an act of Congress called the Patriot Act that tells us that the revolutionary army was a Tier III designated terrorist organization — any group of two or more individuals whether organized or not which engage or has a subgroup which engage in terrorist activity in the use of explosives, firearms or other dangerous devices to endanger directly or indirectly the safety of one or more individuals to cause substantial damage to property. Remember the Sons of Liberty who were responsible for the Boston Tea Party?
The Sons of liberty were akin to Trump’s strident base of today. They were against tariffs and the established order. Dennis Fradin author of “Defiance of Patriots” wrote “the sons enforced the boycott by sending boys to smash widows and smear excrement on the walls of local shops that didn’t comply. If that didn’t work the proprietor faced the risk of being tarred and feathered painful humiliating torture that could leave lasting scars.”
But freedom from oppressive rule is seldom won peacefully. Yet we continue to disparage terrorist groups. Former Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld called the Taliban “losers” yet after 18 years they are still undefeated.
The Council of Foreign Relations notes that conservative politicians can never change their stripes yet history begs to differ. We have the United States, the African National Congress which fought to end apartheid, Haganah in Israel and Kosovo Liberation Army and the IRA are all involved in running “legitimate” governments.
But all had to use asymmetric means to gain power and stature. Since most terrorist groups don’t have F-18 or missiles they use roadside bombs, booby traps and whatever else is available.
In Colombia one group used roofing nails spread on city streets to cause thousands of flat ties.
H.R. McMaster, former National Security Advisor to President Trump, said that there are only two ways to fight a stronger bigger power “be stupid or fight asymmetrically.”
Writer Benjamin Locks put it this way: “Bad guys [and to the British Washington was bad] know what works.”
Here is what the people are saying
Nate Hansard Feb 19, 2020 7:20pm
This column boiled down to one sentence:
One mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter.
See: Iran/Contra scandal for starters.
I do miss the days when we didn't lick the boots of autocrats though, while attacking our allies...