GREAT COMIC!!!!!

Obama is more historically illiterate than I previously thought.

Use our own history to contradict the fantasies in our heads and our sanctimonious blather? The bastard ...

There is a key difference, though. After the Europeans' unwitting (initially) viral assault against Native American populations caused one of the greatest ethnic-cleansing holocausts in history, there are very few original families left to resettle the area.

Manifest Destiny would likely have had its ass kicked off the continent had the majority of the native population (in many areas) not already died of a European disease before ever being seen by a white man. Later, of course, we helped things along by distributing small-pox-infected blankets as a gesture of friendship and good faith.

(Just goes to show -- be wary of bugs (human and other) you haven't encountered before. They may just love you to DEATH!)

I wonder if the Israeli government and people still have their bill of sales, etc. from when they bought the land originally?

And the two state solution has been tried -- multiple times -- and still hasn't worked. I wonder how long it will take until the Obamaniacs get a freaking clue, if ever.

> Manifest Destiny would likely have
> had its ass kicked off the
> continent had the majority of
> the native population (in many
> areas) not already died of a
> European disease before ever
> being seen by a white man.

True.

> we helped things along

False.

Who you calling "we"? If you really have any moral ownership of this crime, why not throw your ass in jail?

> by distributing small-pox-
> infected blankets

Last I heard, this is was a larger version of the men who beat their wives on Super Bowl Sunday, a tale so emotionally fulfilling that it doesn't matter that it's not really true.

The cruelty suffered by the stone-age Americans in the onslaught of Europeans doesn't need to be reduced to pat folk tales.

Later, of course, we helped things along by distributing small-pox-infected blankets as a gesture of friendship and good faith.

This was attempted once - in 1763 at the seige of Fort Pitt - and history does not record whether it was successful. It was not a widespread pattern of white man perfidy.

...had the majority of the native population (in many areas) not already died of a European disease before ever being seen by a white man.

Those "many areas" consisted of coastal Massachusetts long before "Manifest Destiny" had been coined.

The rest of the outbreaks came well after mixing with the white man.

The reason the white man was able to overcome the Plains tribes was because, being nomadic, they were few and far between.

In fighting, the Native American tribes did not fight sustained warfare (i.e., it was an afternoon sporting event to them) while the white man fought until his opponent was dead or overcome.

Despite their lack of European fighting techniques, one American cavalry general called the Plains Indians the "finest light cavalry in the world." This despite having only known horses for only a couple hundred years.

The success of "Manifest Destiny" was a victory of technology, determination, and sheer numbers - not the white man's underhanded genocidal tactics.

Crid, Yep its a myth, sort of. Lord Jeffery Amherst proposed it during Pontiac's Rebellion, 1763. An officer headed to Fort Pitt was "ordered" to innoculate the rebellious tribes with smallpox. No one knows if it was carried out though next spring there was an epidemic in the tribes there. Of course, Fort Pitt had had one earlier, which is where they were going to acquire the smallpox blankets, and it's just as likely there was a reccurence that swept up the Indians also. Found by Professor Peter d'Errico, UofMa at Amherst.

Conan, pretty much what you said.

"If you really have any moral ownership of this crime, why not throw your ass in jail?"

Because, Crid, there is a difference between criminal liability and "moral ownership." As a white person, I feel badly about the things done by white people to Native Americans in the past -- things which have resulted in benefit of the white population until the present. If you don't, that's ok with me.

"Last I heard, this is was a larger version of the men who beat their wives on Super Bowl Sunday, a tale so emotionally fulfilling that it doesn't matter that it's not really true."

Crid, I would also like to believe the intentional spread of disease is a myth. Do you have a reliable source to debunk? Anything I can do to reduce my "white guilt" I have to go for, right? ;)

Thanks, history buffs! (Although I would have preferred that bacteriological warfare was completely a myth, and that the "victory of technology" didn't include gatling guns, cannons, and such.)

But, hey! Imposing our current more's on past times to condemn our ancestors is invalid and foolish, I will admit. I certainly jam that point up feminist fannies often enough ...

Crid, I would also like to believe the intentional spread of disease is a myth.

It's not a myth, but it's not "germ warfare" as we know it either.

Although an Italian proposed the precursor to germ theory in 1546, most people in the 18th century still believed diseases spontaneously generated and were a sign of disfavor from God.

Infecting your opponents with disease-ridden blankets was not "germ warfare" as we know it, but an attempt to invoke the wrath of God on one's opponents.

The first microorganism was not seen by man until the mid-1800s. John Snow traced a cholera outbreak to a pump in central London shortly after that. Louis Pasteur would seal the spontaneous generation theory's coffin a few years after that.

Lord Jeffery Amherst proposed it during Pontiac's Rebellion, 1763.

Ariel, you seem to have a better grasp on the details of the story than I do.

Conan, nope. Just remembered that there was only one known "incident" and that it was around the French-Indian War, proposed by a Brit. After that a search gave me what I couldn't remember. The most important thing is to have a feel for what is and is not true.

If full-blown genocide was the intent of the Brits and Americans, one of my ancestors would have never existed.

Those "many areas" consisted of coastal Massachusetts long before "Manifest Destiny" had been coined.
-Connan

Manifest Desity was nothing more the the 'Divine Right of Kings' in a land where every man was his own king

But, hey! Imposing our current more's on past times to condemn our ancestors is invalid and foolish, I will admit. I certainly jam that point up feminist fannies often enough ...
- Jay R

I dont know. Murder for profit is supposedly frowned on by christians, even christians from 200 years ago

If full-blown genocide was the intent of the Brits and Americans, one of my ancestors would have never existed.

Cromwell actually did try to wipe out the Irish. Fortunately for my existence, he failed.

The most important thing is to have a feel for what is and is not true.

Unfortunately, with the way they teach history these days, that skill is vanishing.

WHo needs history anymore when you can have disney put out an animated movie?

I swear to god I wanted to find the assholes who wrote pocohantas & road to el dorado, rip out their collar bones, gouge out their eyes and stab them to death

Yes,for Cromwell it was but a modest proposal.

Cromwell actually did try to wipe out the Irish. Fortunately for my existence, he failed.

Actually Cromwell was mostly after the Roman Catholic Irish -- not every Irish as a whole. And he was about the average of cruelty, war crimes, and the like for the time period. If you read the Wiki on Cromwell, the Irish Campaign, and the rest you see a lot that was attributed compared to what he actually did.