Happy War of 1812 Day.

August · 05-25-12, 10:28 PM

The Canadians like to display a lot of national pride for repelling the Yankee hordes but the truth is that we didn't go to war over Canada. If the British weren't kidnapping our citizens and pushing the Indians into raiding our frontier we never would have invaded. That was just a way of waging war against England. A military excursion against assets that we could get at. We certainly weren't going to land an army in Liverpool. Not like we could have held either if we had though.

No, we won the war of 1812 by surviving it intact. We bloodied the nose of the premier military power of the age and we got away with it. We forced them to respect our flag and our sovereignty. That is victory.

Bilge_Rat · 05-26-12, 07:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by August

No, we won the war of 1812 by surviving it intact. We bloodied the nose of the premier military power of the age and we got away with it. We forced them to respect our flag and our sovereignty. That is victory.

ex post facto rationalisations. Whatever grievances the US had against Britain, the US declared war and planned to seize Canada. Not only did they not succeed, they wound up fighting defensive battles just to avoid losing chunks of their own territory. Only Americans would see this as a victory.

August · 05-26-12, 09:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bilge_Rat

ex post facto rationalisations. Whatever grievances the US had against Britain, the US declared war and planned to seize Canada. Not only did they not succeed, they wound up fighting defensive battles just to avoid losing chunks of their own territory. Only Americans would see this as a victory.

Hmm, well the US's reasons for going to war against England in 1812 are well documented and existed long before the fact. Canada was an ancillary objective at best. Heck William Hull invaded with less than a 1000 untrained militia. That's hardly a serious attempt at capturing and holding such a huge territory. The Brits took almost 5000 professional troops to burn Washington and even then they had to beat feet back to their ships before we bumbled our way into cutting them off.

05-25-12, 10:28 PM	#1
August Wayfaring Stranger Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Massachusetts Posts: 23,222 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	The Canadians like to display a lot of national pride for repelling the Yankee hordes but the truth is that we didn't go to war over Canada. If the British weren't kidnapping our citizens and pushing the Indians into raiding our frontier we never would have invaded. That was just a way of waging war against England. A military excursion against assets that we could get at. We certainly weren't going to land an army in Liverpool. Not like we could have held either if we had though. No, we won the war of 1812 by surviving it intact. We bloodied the nose of the premier military power of the age and we got away with it. We forced them to respect our flag and our sovereignty. That is victory. __________________ Flanked by life and the funeral pyre. Putting on a show for you to see.