Concerning the top 5 defining battles, I have no quarrel with these lists being heavy, if not exclusively either Revolutionary or Civil War era. That is of course with the assumption that by "defining" we mean that were they to have gone the opposite way the very geography of these United States would be altered - whether that means we remain subjects of the British Crown, thus no US geography to speak of, or splitting into two separate countries altogether via The War Between The States (which my high school history teacher always insisted was a more apt term given that a "civil" war is struggle through armed conflict in order to control "one" government and this was a war of succession - one side trying to prevent it, the other trying to employ it and form a separate government altogether ... although I should add he smiled with glee when anyone referred to it as "The War of Northern Aggression.").
On a list of national defining locations, we shouldn't hesitate to add high on that list ground zero in New York. Add to that another ground zero - the site of the first nuclear test detonation. A defining moment for all nations to be sure, but I think we get to claim it since it was on our soil (or rather in our desert). Ellis Island is a fantastic example. Independence Hall and the White House are naturals and would certainly compete for number 1 on that list - my vote would be cast with the Hall. The Alamo, though not as high on the list, certainly has stood the test of time in terms of an American landmark that defined American heroism. I might add a certain route in Dallas, 1963. I'm just writing these as they come to mind here ... The Washington Mall, MLK's I Have A Dream Speech, is in there. That was certainly a period of national redefinement with that speech being the most indelible image in terms of "one" moment. Kennedy Space Center, and for that matter the moon itself. Neil Armstrong's steps and words became a part of our national identity. Who could deny the Mississippi River, although that's a rather "large" area encompassing many a moment. Plymouth Rock has to be in there. Were my father participating I'm sure he'd add Graceland ...he,he. Here's one - Area 51. That's for all you Scully fans out there. The Hoover Dam ain't bad. The Panama Canal changed the America's forever (freakin Carter gives it back though). I should add the Supreme Court building - the good such as in Brown VS The Board of Education, Topeka if I recall. And DC VS Heller; to the abhorrent - in Dread Scott and Roe V Wade. In that building the very social fabric of this nation has either been reshaped or reinforced.
That's my list for now....
One other thing here ... I used the AP as a news source in order to utilize a reporting agency not traditionally (in recent years anyway) friendly to the US efforts in Iraq. How in the H-E-double hockey stick (as my mother insisted we use rather then cuss as young lads) has Bush and company not, after its removal, gone on a final PR offensive in order to set the record straight on WMD's and Saddam's pursuit of them; and thus help shape history more accurately? And I should note this story (outside of FOX News) is getting ZERO traction in the mainstream press ... though that's hardly a shocker.
Associated Press Writer
Sun Jul 6, 4:45 AM ET
The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program — a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium — reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.
The removal of 550 metric tons of "yellowcake" — the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment — was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam's nuclear legacy. It also brought relief to U.S. and Iraqi authorities who had worried the cache would reach insurgents or smugglers crossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions.
What's now left is the final and complicated push to clean up the remaining radioactive debris at the former Tuwaitha nuclear complex about 12 miles south of Baghdad — using teams that include Iraqi experts recently trained in the Chernobyl fallout zone in Ukraine.
"Everyone is very happy to have this safely out of Iraq," said a senior U.S. official who outlined the nearly three-month operation to The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
I understand keeping it under wraps while the material is still in theater, but why not give a comprehensive update, from the Oval Office, not as an "I told you so" sort of speech, but rather cast it as a briefing, or update on the success occurring in Iraq, then let all the conservative talking heads run wit it as an "I told you so." I mean conventional wisdom now allows people to state that Bush flat out lied about even bio or chemical WMD's, let alone nuclear aspirations, and people are allowed to make such an assertion completely unchallenged this "myth" has so become accepted as doxy. So why not do a little to burst that myth bubble in your final months in office? Of course this begs the question as to why there have been no regular public briefings from the White House in the first place, but that's an old chest nut here .....
1 comment:
To identify the conflict as a war of northern aggression is flat out revisionist.:) Smiling teacher or not, who fired the first shot?
I was always partial to the War between the states. And the reason I didn't put the Alamo on the list was it was NOT an American action but an action of the Republic of Texas. Most of the combatants were there to support Texas, not an expansion of American territory.
And finally, Titus asked about Pearl Harbor and Ground Zero, both undeniably hallowed places, but was America defined in these places? I like to think American values were renewed in these places, but not created. WHICH DOES NOT take anything away from the hallowed status of said locales.
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