The Military Failures of General George Washington

A Skeptic’s Guide to American History (2012)

Episode 4: Washington’s Failures and Real Accomplishments

By Gerald Stoler PhD (2012)

Film Review

Rarely taught in public schools, General George Washington’s military shortcomings during the US War of Independence are the main focus of this presentation.

Unlike most US generals, Washington wasn’t a professional soldier. A Virginia* planter and slave holder, he joined the Virginia colony militia in 1754 and inadvertently started the French and Indian War.**

The Continental Congress chose Washington to lead the Continental Army because they hope the involvement of a high profile Virginian would inspire other Southern colonies to support what began as a New England insurrection in 1775.

The first of Washington’s major military blunders included his 1775 order for his best general Benedict Arnold to take Quebec. More than a third of Arnold’s men were forced to turn back due to their inexperience navigating Canada’s swampy tangle of lakes, streams and rapids. When Arnold finally reached Quebec with 600 starving men and no canon or field artillery, he had no hope of capturing a fortified city and was forced to retreat.

Washington also came under heavy criticism for losing New York City and Philadelphia (to the British) in 1776. The British would make the city their headquarters for the war’s duration. Discontent with these and two other major defeats would lead to the formation of the Conway Cabal, in which senior officers in the Continental Army conspired to replace Washington with the more experienced general Horatio Gates.

General Benedict Arnold’s victory (Washington wasn’t involved) at Saratoga New York was clearly a turning point in the war. When it was followed by Washington’s victories at Trenton and Princeton, France committed military and naval support. In 1781, the combined forces achieved a decisive victory at Yorktown, ultimately convincing the British (who were also at war with France, Spain, Holland and the Holy Roman Empire) to surrender.

The major accomplishments Stoler attributes to Washington were mainly political:

• Suppression of the Newburgh Conspiracy in 1783. This was an attempted coup by Continental Army officers against the Continental Congress.
• Creation of a sound currency and fiscal structure to pay off the national debt incurred by the War of Independence (which I dispute as an accomplishment – see below).***
• He successfully crushed the Pennsylvania Whiskey Rebellion (1791-93), an insurrection against the federal tax Congress imposed on hard liquor.
• He secured the US Western borders (in part via treaties with Britain and Spain, but largely by massacring Native Americans believed to threaten US security).

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*The French and Indian War (1754-1763) pitted the French and their Native American allies against the British army for ultimate control of North America. The war started when Washington allowed a junior member of his militia to assassinate a captured French officer in cold blood.

**At the time of the War of Independence, the Virginia colony comprised modern day Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky.

***The federal government didn’t create any currency (as stipulated in the Constitution) until Lincoln ordered the US Treasury to issue Greenbacks to fund the Civil War. In fact, the US had no standardized currency until Congress passed the National Banking Acts in 1863 and 1864. Until then, all state-chartered private banks issued their own currency. Federal taxes (on liquor and imports) could only be paid with currency issued by the First Bank of the United States. The latter was an 80% (70% foreign owned) privately owned central bank similar to the current Federal Reserve. Moreover the Washington administration paid off their war debts by borrowing more money from private banks, albeit at a lower rate of interest.

The film can be viewed free on Kanopy.

https://pukeariki.kanopy.com/video/washington-failures-and-real-accomplishments

China’s Persecuted Minority: How Did 22 Uighurs End Up in Gitmo?

The Guantanamo 22

Al Jazeera (2018)

Film Review

The Guantanamo 22 is about 22 Uighur refugees who spent seven years at Gitmo after they were sold to US forces for $5,000 each by the Pakistan military and Afghan warlords.

The Uighurs are an oppressed Turkic ethnic minority who have been persecuted by the Chinese ever since China invaded their country (Gulja) in 1949. In 2000-2001, a number sought asylum in Afghanistan after being arrested, beaten and tortured for their participating in Islamic advocacy protests.

As one of the only countries with no extradition treaty with China, prior to 9-11 Afghanistan had an established Uighur community.

After US bombing began in late 2001, the Uighur village where they lived was destroyed, and 18 survivors sought refuge in Pakistan. The villagers who took them in tricked them and handed them over to the Pakistan army. Four others were kidnapped by warlords in Afghanistan.

Once they arrived in Guantanamo, the US military allowed Chinese authorities to interrogate and torture torture them for four days – in exchange for a promise China would support the US invasion of Iraq at the UN Security Council.*

By October 2002, after 10 months at Guantanamo, all 22 had been through the Status Review Board (ie a military tribunal in which detainees are denied access to a lawyer and the right to present evidence or challenge the US military’s evidence) and found innocent of all terrorism charges. Yet it still took another seven years for most of them to be released.

In late 2002, they were finally allowed to see a lawyer working with the Center for Constitutional Rights. The first three were transferred to Albania (which still regards them as terrorists), to spare the US government the embarrassment of defending an appeal against their unlawful detention.

In 2008, the Supreme Court ruled that all Guantanamo detainees had the right to appeal their detention in US federal court. A short time later, a federal judge ordered the release of the other 19 Uighurs. Shortly after his inauguration, Obama attempted to transfer two of them to Virginia, but this was blocked by Congress.

In June 2009, the US reached agreement with Bermuda to take four Uighurs. In October 2009, Pelau agreed to take six, in return for a steep increase in US aid. Switzerland, El Salvador agreed to take the rest, though many remain stateless persons in their host countries and not allowed passports.

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*China ultimately reneged on this commitment

The film can’t be embedded but can be viewed for free at The Guantanamo 22

The Real Cause of the Revolutionary War: Preserving Slavery

The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Black Resistance and the Origins of the United States of America

Professor Gerald Horne

In this lecture about his 2014 book, African American history professor Gerald Horne exposes important events that triggered the so-called War of Independence. He makes a compelling case that the decision of the 13 colonies to declare independence in 1776 was a direct result of George III’s 1775 decision to establish all-black Ethiopian regiments to fight colonial regiments in Virginia (the colony that produced Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and other high profile members of the independence movement). Odd, isn’t it, that white historians neglect to mention this important fact in our high school textbooks?

According to Horne, there was a clear precedent for arming African troops in North America. In the 18th century, both the French (who occupied Quebec) and the Spanish (who occupied Florida) armed escaped slaves to attack the English colonies. Collaboration between the armed Africans and black slaves led to several major slave revolts in the 18th century. Two of the most important were the 1712 slave uprising in Manhattan (backed by the French) and the  1739 Stono’s Revolt in South Carolina (led by a coalition of Spanish armed Africans from St. Augustine Florida and Portuguese-speaking slaves from Angola).

Horne also believes the timing of the 1776 “War of Independence” also related to Britain’s decision to abolish slavery in 1772 – and fears King George would extend the ban on slavery to the 13 colonies.

In summing up, Horne traces how this willingness to go to war over the diabolical (but immensely profitable) institution of slavery would shape the ruthlessly greedy and mean-spirited character of the American nation. Unlike the US, Canada, which never adopted slavery nor fought two wars to preserve it, has made a genuine effort to look after its poor and underprivileged. Horne gives the example of the universal single payer health system.

Horne believes this hidden history also accounts for the special persecution of the descendents of slaves, as opposed to non-US natives with black skin.

There is a very long introduction. The actual talk starts at 9:24.