Revolutionary War Historian Joseph Ellis Says U.S. Imperialism Violates “Historic Identity”

America's military presence in Iraq represents "a basic violation" of its "historic identity," that of a nation founded in opposition to imperialism, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Joseph Ellis said.

Americans have neglected an important lesson from their own past, Ellis, an authority on the Revolutionary War period, said. "We have become the imperial power. We have become Great Britain and have succeeded Great Britain as the hegemonic power of the world. I would think we would wish to avoid making some of the mistakes she made." He challenged the idea that the U.S. needs a military presence in South Korea and Western Europe as well as Iraq.

"The notion that (our problems) are going to be solved in a military fashion is fundamentally misguided and it's going to send us right down the path that Britain went and into oblivion," Ellis warned in a recent talk at the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover.

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Prior to assuming command in Iraq, General (David) Petraeus wrote studies saying it would take almost a million U.S. troops to put down an Iraqi insurgency and, Ellis noted, "we aren't going to get a million troops." The result in Iraq has put the insurgency in a position where, even if they can't win, they will succeed if they just don't lose, but that the U.S. has to "win."

The Revolutionary War was a battle "for the hearts and minds of the American people, and Washington realizes that," Ellis continued. "The only major battle he fought was at Monmouth Court House (June 28, 1778) until the end of the war and that was by accident. He comes to an understanding that an occupying army has massive problems not just in defeating but in suppressing and controlling an insurgency. Eventually, the British won't lose, they will simply give up because the ordinary people back in London don't want it."

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