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Driver's Seat
Two Georges: Bush and Custer
By BOB DRIVER, columnist
Article published on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 |
Can we justifiably compare George Bush with George Custer? Maybe not. But let’s give it a try.
To start with, the timing is appropriate. It was during this, the final week of June 1876, that Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer made his last stand at the ill-planned and poorly executed Battle of the Little Bighorn. And it’s during this current year that President George W. Bush is making his last stand as the perpetrator of the disastrous Battle of Iraq. From this point on, the similarities and differences splatter all over the canvas. But they’re still worth noting.
For openers, both Bush and Custer gave early evidence of not being very bright. In repeated actions and utterances, Bush has resembled a nearsighted Boy Scout entering a swamp without his compass. You’re never quite sure, once he begins, where things will end.
Early in his life, Custer also displayed doofus DNA. He finished dead last in his class (1861) at West Point, where he was almost expelled several times, mostly for playing pranks on his fellow cadets. Once given his commission, Custer might have expected to pull duty at some backwater Army post in Delaware. But the outbreak of the Civil War increased the value of every officer, even the also-rans. Custer was not destined to be a rear-echelon soldier.
When it comes to seeking and facing enemy fire, no two men were more different than Bush and Custer. George W. Bush successfully evaded any likelihood that he would ever stand in harm’s way. No one can say he might not have made a splendid warrior. But he and his influential friends just saw to it that he never got close to danger. In contrast, George Custer quickly proved to be an ambitious, colorful, damn-the-torpedoes cavalry officer who fought bravely and well in several battles, including Gettysburg. At age 23, he became one of the youngest brigadier generals in the Union Army.
Once the war ended, Custer (like Bush in his 20s) was unsure of what calling to pursue. He considered careers in railroads or mining, and even thought of running for Congress from his home district in Michigan. He ultimately accepted a commission as a lieutenant-colonel in the newly formed U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment, based at Fort Riley, Kan. From that point on, Custer led the life of an Indian fighter.
At the close of the Civil War, the U.S. government was determined to bring an end to the unsettling behavior of the various tribes who resisted the white man’s takeover of their ancient lands. The overall goal was to herd all Indians onto reservations. This would allow the white folks untrammeled access to the gold, copper, wheat, pastureland, buffalo, sunshine and open space remaining. For reasons not hard to fathom, the Indians often responded by shooting, torturing, scalping and speaking ill of their Caucasian invaders. It didn’t take a genius to predict the eventual victor in this sad war.
By the end of the 1860s Custer had taken part in several campaigns against the Cheyenne and Comanches. In 1874 he led an expedition into the Black Hills of South Dakota. He soon announced the discovery of gold. This triggered the Black Hills Gold Rush and the creation of the fabled town of Deadwood. These developments swiftly elevated existing tensions between settlers and Indians.
President Grant set a Jan. 31, 1876, deadline for all Lakota and Northern Cheyenne tribesmen to report to designated reservations. Many Indians complied. Many did not. In mid-June Custer and the 7th Cavalry launched a roundup of the remaining. Meanwhile, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and other chieftains had assembled a large force – estimated at 1,800 Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho fighters – near the Little Bighorn River in southeastern Montana. The ever-confident Custer, almost certainly unaware that he was vastly outnumbered, led three formations totaling less than 500 officers and men into battle. Because of the Indians’ numerical superiority and the cavalry’s tactical mistakes, Custer and his men were slaughtered. Unlike Iraq, the defeat was quick. However, as with our forces in Iraq, the Custer forces were under-equipped. Before the battle, Custer had left behind a battery of Gatling guns that would have substantially increased his firepower.
Despite his questionable military leadership, Custer is revered by many as a tragic hero who gave his life for his country.
Perhaps George W. Bush will one day be regarded as the stubborn architect of a farsighted and finally valid Mideast foreign policy. I’d like to think so, but I doubt it. What’s more likely is that the years from 2003 onward may be known as the Second Battle of the Little Bighorn.
Send Bob Driver an e-mail at tralee71@comcast.net.
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Article published on Tuesday, June 24, 2008
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