You’re very right
Jeff Jacoby in the Boston Globe
On the eve of the Normandy invasion in 1944, General George S. Patton, addressing the men of the US Third Army, delivered a speech that would become legendary long before George C. Scott reenacted it on a Hollywood soundstage.
“Americans love a winner,” Patton growled, “and will not tolerate a loser. Americans despise cowards. Americans play to win – all the time. I wouldn’t give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. . . . The very thought of losing is hateful to an American.”
Nowadays, the thought of losing a war isn’t as hateful to some Americans as the thought of losing an election. Recall MoveOn.org’s infamous “General Betray Us” ad last fall, which was intended to undercut the commander of US forces in Iraq. Think of Senate majority leader Harry Reid’s insistence that “this war is lost and the surge is not accomplishing anything,” or Barack Obama’s unbudging claim that the “strategy is failed” and we must “get our troops out,” or Hillary Clinton’s vow that “starting on day one of my presidency, we will begin . . . to withdraw our troops within 60 days.”
Were Patton alive today, his opinion of such defeatism would assuredly be unflattering – and unprintable. But his conviction that Americans have no patience for losers would be reinforced by the public’s mounting confidence that the war in Iraq will be won.
This article, quite probably, made Jacoby the most hated man in Boston for the day.