How did Mr. Bush Screw up so badly?

If you have ever seen the movie The Godfather part 2, you will recall the scene where Don Michael Corleone, just arrived in Cuba, is on his way to meet with Hyman Roth.



As Michael's car drives through the crowded streets, they are stopped in traffic as police search and arrest rebels. Johnny Ola notes: "Just some lousy bandits. The police are cleaning them up." One Spanish guerrilla rebel runs across the street, shouts: "Viva Fidel!", pushes an official into a parked car, and suicidally blows them up with a fiery, smoky grenade explosion.



A birthday cake with a lit sparkler on top and a decorative picture of Cuba is wheeled along on a serving cart on the open-air terrace of the Roth-owned Capri Hotel. Hyman Roth,speaking like a generous mentor to his business associates, wishes them all well.



"A rebel was being arrested by the military police", observes Michael Corleone "and rather than be taken alive, he exploded a grenade he had hidden in his jacket. He killed himself and he took a captain of the command with him...it occurred to me the soldiers are paid to fight, the rebels aren't".



"What does that tell you", inquires Roth.



"That they can win", replies Michael.


In 1777, General William Howe marched his army of British Redcoats into Philadelphia, the seat of the Revolutionary government. The Continental Congress abandoned the city. Howe finally outmaneuvered Washington and marched into Philadelphia unopposed and it appeared the American Revolutionary War was over. At least to the English. Washington and his army encamped at Valley Forge in December 1777.

Howe had shown the hitherto unconvinced British population that a military solution to the American colonial uprising might be possible. American revolutionary leaders were not, however, about to give up the fight. And as for Howe’s occupation of Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin described it another way: “Howe has not captured Philadelphia. Philadelphia has captured Howe.”

Howe was in Philadelphia, but what was he to do next if the revolutionaries continued to fight? And fight is exactly what the Americans did. The revolutionaries might not win by pitched battle, but time was on their side. They were fighting for their own homeland, on their own soil. It was a classic insurgent scenario, to be replayed many times in the following centuries.

The Revolutionary War dragged on another five years, but the result was total victory for the uprising.