Kids are taught in history that Gettysburg was the turning point of the Civil War, and that Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa, was the turning point in World War II.
From July 4, 1863, the South never invaded the north again. From January 1943, the Nazis and Japanese never again had the initiative.
That’s not the way things were to the people living through these crises. While these events were celebrated, people knew better.
I believe it will be seen that November 6, 2018 represented a similar turning point in the crisis represented by Donald Trump, and the invasion of the West by Russia that is, even now, escalating in Europe and the Ukraine. But a turning point isn’t final victory. It doesn’t even mean victory is in sight.
Victory didn’t come in sight with the Civil War until my own city of Atlanta was taken. Until then the result still hung in the balance, with Lincoln unlikely to win re-election, and a new government, under former General George McClellan, widely expected to seek peace on terms that would have let the Confederacy, and slavery, survive.
Victory didn’t come in sight with World War II until D-Day, on June 6, 1944, nearly 18 months after North Africa was invaded. It didn’t become inevitable until the Battle of the Bulge was won, that December.
Even after the turning point, in other words there were losses, death, and suffering yet to come. The biggest battles of the Civil War came in 1864. The biggest, bloodiest battles in the South Pacific, like Tinian and Okinawa, were still to come. So were the battles for Italy and Europe. So was the Soviet offensive in eastern Europe.
The same is true in this fight. There are massive losses still to come. There will be losses in court, and there will be losses on the ground. Russia, a trivial power in economic terms, still threatens to overrun the Ukraine, it already has governments in Hungary, Poland, Austria and elsewhere which are amenable to it. Germany is teetering on the brink, with the retirement of Angela Merkel. The EU could yet collapse, and so could NATO.
Worse, most Americans still haven’t recognized who our real opponent is. Our troops are still dying in Afghanistan, they’re still stationed in Iraq, and they’re still supporting Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen. Our politics are all focused internally. Any statement that Vladimir Putin is the real enemy and that he must be destroyed for this war to end, which is the plain fact of the matter, isn’t even being addressed.
Instead, Putin’s man remains in the White House. Instead, fascism is on the march in South America. Instead, the only global winner remains China, whose autocrats hand out Internet liberty with an eye dropper, who are engaged in genocide in Xinjiang and Tibet, and who could, at any point, take over Taiwan and, with it, America’s entire tech sector.
Some of these things may yet happen. Not only can we not even begin to address China until the current war is won, but no politician can start to address the climate crisis, which as I saw just last month has already devastated the Caribbean, has burned California and the West, and which is very likely to inundate Florida by the end of the next decade.
It all reminds me of a bad dream I’ve had, off and on, for many years. I need to get from Point A to Point B, but I find myself going backwards to Point C, then further backwards to Point D, while the clock ticks and my deadline to reach Point B comes and goes.
Now for the good news.
The Civil War was an incredibly bloody conflict, which happened in 10,000 places, in every state of the Union. Its echoes continue to reverberate in Jim Crow Republicanism, in racism, sexism and nativism. With every crisis since that time it raises its ugly head and threatens to tear us apart.
But it was won.
World War II was even bloodier. Hundreds of millions died around the world. The reverberations of that fight also remain. Fascism has only been bottled, not destroyed, and it is threatening even now to destroy democracy, freedom, and liberty, in favor of a global war of all against all in which even a minor power like Russia can dominate global affairs.
But World War II was won.
Compared with these conflicts, the present war seems modest. But we have, since 2009, seen genocides in Syria, Yemen, and Burma. We have seen ongoing wars throughout the Middle East, wasting its oil resources, and in the Caucasus, wasting Russia’s own oil wealth. And, as I’ve noted, we’re only halfway through, if that. Much worse is still to come.
But the turning point has been reached. I predict this war, too, will be won.
The investigation, impeachment and imprisonment of Donald Trump and his allies will move forward. I personally don’t expect him to survive it. I expect his corpulent lifestyle and Diet Coke habit to lead to a stroke once the cops get close, maybe next summer. But even that great day will just be one battle. It will still be just D-Day, with even more struggles to come, first within the U.S., then on the global stage.
My generation did this. My generation is responsible. Marilyn Quayle was right when she said in 1992 that most baby boomers rejected Woodstock and supported the War in Vietnam. Mine is the greediest, most self-centered generation since the Roman elites of the first century A.D. Even if America remains a global power, it will be a different America, one that Trumpistan won’t recognize, which triumphs, one that has no place for me or my generation.
Tough shit. Pound sand. I have no more sympathy for Trumpistanis, for those who continue to support this brutal dictatorship, than I would for Confederates in 1863 or Nazis in 1943. Your America is doomed. The only hope is to build another America on its wreckage. To that end I will devote the rest of my life, my voice, and my sacred honor.
