Post by halonachos on May 2, 2015 20:57:37 GMT
So when I'm having a bit of free time at work I like to look at the BBC's online news pages, they tend to have some pretty neat info up there concerning medical tech and that kinda gets me all sorts of happy. However I was browsing the pages and saw an article discussing the American Civil War and the question the author was asking was why Americans didn't celebrate it as much as Brits tend to celebrate some of their other historical events. Eventually the author went into a quick history of the war and then concluded that Americans tended to not celebrate some events because they didn't happen as long ago as some have happened in British history and cited the Battle of Agincourt as an example.
My first impression was more along the lines of holy crap, how can you really be so dense as to come to that conclusion? I'm surprised a black hole hadn't formed around his desk in his office or house, or whatever you guys call them over there.
Especially when it comes down to a simple fact; the Civil War was a war in which Americans brutally killed other Americans. In fact it is the sole reason we have a national cemetery for our country's veterans. The author believed that because the union was preserved and that the nation was kept whole that Americans should go out and have parades and massive celebrations to mark the anniversary of the war. I don't know if that's a common thing for authors to think, or a common thing for people who write for the BBC to think but no it's not just about who won in the end. In fact almost no war is celebrated by the American public, no V-E or V-J celebrations, no Revolutionary War victory parties, nothing of those in nature. However, they seem to be rather commonly celebrated overseas with pomp, circumstance, and flags everywhere.
I would have to say that one reason would be that in almost every war America has been involved in it has been dragged into it against it's will. The War of 1812 began because the British navy kept kidnapping American sailors and paying Native American tribes to harass fringe areas of the new country's borders. The Mexican-American War began with the US military intervening with a situation involving Texas and Mexico, the Civil War itself wasn't wanted(Confederate forces failed to chase after fleeing federal forces after the first battle of Bull Run, a continued advance by the Confederates could have easily captured DC), the Spanish-American War began when an American warship was blown up in a foreign harbor, WW1 saw American entrance after Americans were killed on the Lusitania and the British sent the Zimmerman Telegram to US officials, WW2 was because of Pearl Harbor, Korea was because of North Korean aggression against South Korea, and Vietnam because the French had asked for some help to reclaim their colony.
There was almost always some loss of life or some attack that provoked a war and while we are proud of our accomplishments I do believe that most Americans now and of that time would have rather stayed out of those sordid affairs. So we celebrate veteran's day and memorial day as opposed to a V-E day or V-J day because we have to recognize the fact that while we did what we thought was good and right there is always a loss even when we have won and that we never wanted to compete in the first place.
Sure, the American stereotype is that we're always ready for war and gung-ho when it comes to the topic. We're all a bunch of Rambo cowboys willing to put down our McDonalds, pick up a gun and shoot whatever we feel like. Truth is, we don't really like it, we don't like to go to war, but we don't like it when we're attacked either and drum up that support for those who do pick up a gun. The anniversary of the Civil War, V-E Day, and V-J Day are meaningless dates to us.
We don't celebrate those dates, we celebrate Memorial and Veteran's Day because the people who fought those wars are more revered to us than the days their foes capitulated.
My first impression was more along the lines of holy crap, how can you really be so dense as to come to that conclusion? I'm surprised a black hole hadn't formed around his desk in his office or house, or whatever you guys call them over there.
Especially when it comes down to a simple fact; the Civil War was a war in which Americans brutally killed other Americans. In fact it is the sole reason we have a national cemetery for our country's veterans. The author believed that because the union was preserved and that the nation was kept whole that Americans should go out and have parades and massive celebrations to mark the anniversary of the war. I don't know if that's a common thing for authors to think, or a common thing for people who write for the BBC to think but no it's not just about who won in the end. In fact almost no war is celebrated by the American public, no V-E or V-J celebrations, no Revolutionary War victory parties, nothing of those in nature. However, they seem to be rather commonly celebrated overseas with pomp, circumstance, and flags everywhere.
I would have to say that one reason would be that in almost every war America has been involved in it has been dragged into it against it's will. The War of 1812 began because the British navy kept kidnapping American sailors and paying Native American tribes to harass fringe areas of the new country's borders. The Mexican-American War began with the US military intervening with a situation involving Texas and Mexico, the Civil War itself wasn't wanted(Confederate forces failed to chase after fleeing federal forces after the first battle of Bull Run, a continued advance by the Confederates could have easily captured DC), the Spanish-American War began when an American warship was blown up in a foreign harbor, WW1 saw American entrance after Americans were killed on the Lusitania and the British sent the Zimmerman Telegram to US officials, WW2 was because of Pearl Harbor, Korea was because of North Korean aggression against South Korea, and Vietnam because the French had asked for some help to reclaim their colony.
There was almost always some loss of life or some attack that provoked a war and while we are proud of our accomplishments I do believe that most Americans now and of that time would have rather stayed out of those sordid affairs. So we celebrate veteran's day and memorial day as opposed to a V-E day or V-J day because we have to recognize the fact that while we did what we thought was good and right there is always a loss even when we have won and that we never wanted to compete in the first place.
Sure, the American stereotype is that we're always ready for war and gung-ho when it comes to the topic. We're all a bunch of Rambo cowboys willing to put down our McDonalds, pick up a gun and shoot whatever we feel like. Truth is, we don't really like it, we don't like to go to war, but we don't like it when we're attacked either and drum up that support for those who do pick up a gun. The anniversary of the Civil War, V-E Day, and V-J Day are meaningless dates to us.
We don't celebrate those dates, we celebrate Memorial and Veteran's Day because the people who fought those wars are more revered to us than the days their foes capitulated.