“Your noisy sons of liberty are, I find, the quietest in the field.” (Joseph Reed, commenting on the “tavern patriots and windy politicians “ in 1776). Yes, it is usually the comfortable old men, few of whom have ever been near military action, and indeed actively avoided it, who are happiest to send young men into action. It was always thus. Things haven’t changed since the mistaken insurrection against good King George III.
What do you mean, “Good” King George III? George was a tyrant, who tried to tax the freedom-loving citizens of these United States. Yes, the founders wanted to create an empire to the west, we know that. And George didn’t want to pay for it and upset the French again. But the colonists had every right to rebel against the British and their German mercenaries. Nobody should be made to pay for wars started by others. And the inference that the signers of the Declaration of Independence never came anywhere near a battlefield and happily sent raw , untrained recruits into battle is just post-modern propaganda.
A tyrant? All George and his quite moderate government were trying to do was to defend the colonies aginst the French. In doing so they incurred huge costs, which they wanted to defray with a bit of extra taxation on the colonial beneficiaries of the activities of the British fleet. Seems reasonable. It is only in modern times that we have witnessed the illusion of the “costless” war,that is, Iraq. You spend like a drunken sailor, illustrate your chronic incompetence and expect the Japanese and Chinese to put up their capital to pay for it all. Or so it is hoped! Never, never ask a war supporter to pay with increased taxes, and, by the way, never put yourself or your young kids in harms way to defend freedom and democracy.
So what was really going on in the Thirteen Colonies? What they, or the Virginian good ole boys, wanted was to expand westwards. George said no, I can’t defend you if you do that. But the insurrectionists wanted land and they wanted an empire. Thus, crying “liberty” did the founders found. Of course,you don’t read any of this in American school history books. And it was a very near run thing indeed, as it haapens. If the British hadn’t observed 18th Century custom and hadn’t retired to winter quarters, the outcome might have been different. The insurrectionists, setting an example to all modern “terrorists”, threw over 18th Century convention, and I suppose the rest is history. Bah! Humbug, Sir!!
Two points.
First, the Brits spoiled the colonists for a long time in one hugely damaging respect: what young America had gotten for its tax money was SECURITY provided by the British Navy patrolling the world’s oceans. As we now know, security is very, very expensive. Two centuries passed before the U.S. would pony up money to build credible oceanic power.
Second, the Brits’ mistake was overestimating their ability to bring enough power to bear across the Atlantic when they so busy fighting the French elsewhere.