That Grand Old Army [of the Potomac] did performed many heroic acts but never in its history did it do a more devoted service than vote for Abraham Lincoln.
Unknown Soldier quoted by Ken Burns in The Civil War Episode Seven Host Hallowed Ground 1990
After the battles of Gettysburg and Vicksburg and the fall of the Mississippi river to the North the Confederate Armies were no longer capable of major offensive actions against the North. This was punctuated by the defeat of Braxton Bragg who failed to follow up on his victory at Chickamauga by seizing Chattanooga giving time for Grant to take over the armies there and defeat him and force his retreat back into Georgia & his relief.
With overwhelming forces the plan of the North was for Grant as general in chief accompanying the Army of the Potomac under Meade going after Lee & Richmond and with Sherman commanding the Army of the Tennessee going after Joe Johnston & Atlanta.
This was a problem for Jefferson Davis and the South. Both Union Armies were at least a half again larger than the Confederate Forces, they were well supplied by a United States whose industrial and agricultural sectors were expanding. Meanwhile the Union blockade was squeezing the South, inflation was rampant and despite interior lines the pressures from both advancing armies combined with raids on infrastructure were creating a supply crisis. The discontent on the home front meant that the government itself was in danger
It was true that daring raiders such as the CSS Alabama at sea and the genius of General Nathan Bedford Forest cavalry on land gave the North grief neither was sufficient to do more than annoy the forces of the Union Army or dent their trade and while Johnston was an excellent general and Lee, despite his defeat at Gettysburg was rightfully considered a military genius they simply weren’t strong enough to destroy the Armies converging on them.
Davis had one card left to play. The election of 1864 was coming and with the war was not popular. If the Democrats which has a large peace faction could manage to unseat Lincoln who was committed to conducting the war to the point of victory, the South could win diplomatically what they were incapable of winning militarily, and such an electoral defeat of the GOP might even bring France or England on board diplomatically to end the war.
Thus is was the job for Lee and Johnston to do all they could to slow the advances of Grant and Sherman making sure it was costly in terms of time and lives to put the Democrats in power who would be amiable to the end of the war, even if it meant a defeat for the Union while expelling the hated Lincoln from the scene.
162 years later Iran and the Democrats have the exact same game plan.
Iran has been creative in their use of drones in order to try and overwhelm US capabilities and to strike (with aid & intelligence from Russia & China) bases in the middle east and the Houthi’s moves against the Saudi’s can drive the price of gas up but in the end Iran can only resupply by land and very slowly, they can’t sell their oil to get hard cash, their tankers which are not being blockaded find themselves venerable to the US navy at sea. What’s left of their air force is currently on the ground in Pakistan to avoid destruction, their navy HAS been destroyed & their army dare not move against US bases in the area for fear of being desiccated, that is even if they could manage the logistics to move, supply and feed their forces.
For all their loud talk and big treats they are unable to do much to wit:
Four days later no missiles are heading to Israel, which is just as well as Israel are much less reluctant to hit Iranian targets in Iran as we are and could even decide to go after the Houthis (although I suspect they will make the Saudi’s ask for the help or to sign the Abraham Accords before they do). Iran can basically hunker down and take it, but they can do one other thing, STALL.
Iran knows there is an American election in less than 60 days. Iran also knows that Democrats hate Donald Trump much more than they love America (at least among the minority of Democrats who do according to pols). They know that the Democrat left will do all they can to have the war end in an American defeat & will advance propaganda to that effect. If they can keep the price of gas high enough and create enough economic cost they hope to cause President Trump to end the stranglehold on the nation giving them a chance to rebuild. It will take years to do so, but that’s better than the Islamic republic falling.
In 1864 the Army of the Potomac had a ton of votes and despite the Democrat nominee being their beloved first commander who treated them well they voted enmasse for Abraham Lincoln and came from people all over the nation. In my city of Fitchburg which was still a town at the time of the war, a book on Fitchburg’s service members needed many many pages to list them all. They knew what they were fighting for
Today those in the service & who have served know what Iran is and who the enemy is, but they are a tiny minority of the country.
So it will be up to the non-serving members of the public, if Iran will be more successful than the Confederates.
May we as a nation have the wisdom to see things as they are.
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