Washington and victory or death

Newt Gingrich:

... I took some friends to Mount Vernon to see the new education center. It is an amazing tribute to George Washington and the creation of America.

We watched a movie about George Washington crossing the Delaware on Christmas Eve and surprising the Hessians (German mercenaries) on Christmas Day in Trenton. As I watched, I was struck by the amazing difference between the attitude of the father of our country and the current attitudes in the city that bears his name.

General Washington had had a long and painful summer and autumn of defeat in 1776. His American Army had been defeated across New York--in Brooklyn, in Manhattan, and in White Plains--and then driven across New Jersey and forced to flee across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania.

Washington's forces had dwindled until he had only about 4,000 effective soldiers left. There were another 6,000 men present but they were so sick they were unable to go into battle.

Faced with declining morale, rising desertions, the collapse of political will in the country at large, and a sense of despair, Washington decided to gamble everything on a surprise attack. It would require a night crossing of an icy river against a formidable professional opponent.

But the most telling sign of Washington's mood as he embarked on the mission was his choice of a password. His men said "victory or death" to identify themselves.

... That victory led to a surge in American morale and a doubling in the size of the American forces under Washington within two weeks. And that gave Washington the strength to win a second surprise victory at Princeton.

Within two weeks, Washington had gone from defeated, hopeless bungler to victorious American hero and personification of the American cause.

Imagine there had been a Baker-Hamilton commission--the group charged with assessing our options in Iraq--advising Washington that cold Christmas Eve. What "practical, realistic," advice would they have given him?...

...

He goes on to talk about the pending report. I am finishing David McCullough's John Adams and on trip over Thanksgiving listened to his excellent 1776. Both are well worth your time and they give an example of the kind of perseverance needed to win the current war. While the media makes a fetish out of telling us how long the Iraq war has been going on, the war for independence went on much longer with many more reverses. Even after it ended, it took several years to get a constitution in place.