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My Amazon vine review of Newt Gingrich’s and Gingrich and William Forstchen work of Historical Fiction: To Try Men’s Souls: A Novel of George Washington and the Fight for American Freedom is available at Amazon.com here.
Unlike his Civil War volumes where we have an alternate history, this one is a pure historical fiction focused on some of the famous and not so famous people who made history on that cold Christmas evening.
This book will be released October 20th.
That first saved the country in 1814 when Thomas MacDonough defeated the British fleet on Lake Champlain in the Battle of Plattsburgh.
Control of the lake was vital to move supplies through what was the wilderness of New York MacDonough’s defeat of a superior fleet with a history of victory over all sorts of odds was so decisive that even Lord Wellington stated that without British control of them there was no point sending him to America to fight.
At the crisis point of the battle MacDonough managed to wear his primary ship Saratoga 180 degrees due to springs and cables that he prepared the day before, that allowed him to send broadsides from his undamaged side into the equally damaged British fleet.
His taking of the entire fleet meant that even though the British Armies had a 3-1 advantage in troops they were forced to retreat back to Canada.
On September 11th 2001 the second great American victory took place in the skys over Pennsylvania. When a group of passengers of the hijacked flight 93 discovered the fate of the planes that crashed into the world trade center they decided that it was necessary for them to take action. With a cry of “Let’s Roll” the people on that flight ceased to be victims and instead became soldiers and warriors. Their will to fight and make a difference denying a victory to our foes and was the first of many US victory’s in the war on Terror.
It was that moment when 9/11 ceased to be another of many terror attacks and became the War on Terror for me, before then it was just one of many terror attacks and other than the scale and coordination of it was no different than other terror attacks all over the world. After flight 93 Americans were now in battle and all the emotions that come from a shared struggle.
That is what 9/11 means to me.
Our enemies are not going to get the satisfaction. When we constantly mourn we give our foes a victory once every year they haven’t earned.
Update: 9/11 is the day of two great American Victories in history. Later tonight I will detail them.
Update 2: Lileks says it best:
there’s still a space in the sky where no one will ever stand again. We could stand there once. That we couldn’t stand there eight years ago was their fault. That we cannot stand there today is ours.
Bingo!
One last thing about the death panel stuff.
If you wonder why pro life people, particularly the Catholic Church keep fighting when all this stuff goes on it’s because they have seen the culture of life degenerate since Roe v. Wade. They have seen assisted suicide and euthanasia in the western world. The see the Capewell case and they understand what the fight is all about.
They understand in the great tradition of Margaret Sanger the death panel isn’t a bug, it’s a feature. And once there are guidelines are in place people who would normally be considered good and moral people will embrace those features and say they were just following guidelines or didn’t want to rock the boat. Just as otherwise good people and good neighbors embraced slavery and Jim Crow without giving it a second thought or if they had those thoughts kept them to themselves. The change will be gradual, it will be a gentle slope:
You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report great wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one-— the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.
If this passes I predict that in ten years we will be told that our instance of the preservation of life and the treatment of the elderly will be called “unreasonable” and the argument of “quality of life” and “economy” and “guidelines” will be used as an excuse to end life.
It’s not a bug it’s a feature
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