"SPEAK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG STICK" - Theodore Roosevelt vs "SPEAK WITH FALSE BRAVADO AND CARRY A BROKEN TWIG" - General Mark Milley
Vol. I | Issue. 27 | September 13, 2021
Roughrider and former NYC Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) was the youngest man ever to assume the office of President of The United States (JFK was the youngest ever to be elected to that office). Upon the assassination of President William McKinley, "TR" became our 26th President. He was uniquely American fraught with inner conflict concerning his desire to be a plain-spoken man of the people with the understanding that his privileged upbringing cast upon him great responsibility.
Born to the aristocratic (by American standards) Roosevelt clan, TR was sickly as a child, but through sheer force of will, he built himself into a physicality that supported his lifelong passion and pursuit of all things exacting and robust. TR loved the outdoors, went west, lost most of his inheritance as a cattle rancher, and explored the natural world to become a published zoologist, ornithologist, and historian of note.
His book, The Naval War of 1812, remains an authoritative scholarly source on that subject. TR was Harvard educated and clearly had the deep markings of an East Coast American Brahmin as he wore and lived his rarefied status with restless unease.
Perhaps the greatest contradiction regarding his political philosophy and world view was the juxtaposition of his "progressive" views regarding domestic politics and his vision of a strong American presence on the world stage.
In its progressiveness, he recognized that the giant Trusts of the Day i.e. The Railroads, and most particularly Standard Oil, had a stranglehold on the health and vitality of American Capitalism and The American Way. As a consequence, TR became "The Great Trust Buster” by taking a wrecking ball to those pernicious monopolies.
Today, were there any real non-Marxist progressives in America, they would be doing the same to Big Tech and The American Pravda.
On the world stage, however, TR, believed that America’s clear emergence as the world’s greatest economic power and its rightful place amongst the nations demanded a corresponding strength to protect and defend what he considered to be America's manifest destiny in the early 20th century.
As a show of that strength, TR built what he called the "Great White Fleet”, and sent it to sail around the world, making clear that America now had global interest and the martial means to protect them as required.
But, TR wore the mein of power reluctantly in the same way that he wore his own personal aristocracy.
The famed quotation from a letter written by TR on January 26, 1900: "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far." became the hallmark of his underlying philosophy regarding international relations. Boiled down to its essentials, it means: “I don't start fights, but I am in a position to finish them...Don't mess with me”, or that ancient phrase "Don't tread on me" which is so enshrined in America's DNA.
TR’s wordsmithing in that phrase conveys an assertive modesty that contains a pearl of vast and timeless wisdom.
Now let's discuss a different type of speaker and messaging…
General Mark Milley, Chairman of The Joint Chiefs of Staff, in his remarks at the 20 Year Commemoration of the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks delivered a different message and messaging. Milley should have had no place of honor on that day. He should have resigned in disgrace for his starring role in our tragic and failed exit from Afghanistan.
Instead of the appropriately reflective remarks that he should have delivered to the somber audience on September 11, 2021, his tone was one of false bravado, harshness, and messaging as if America was the victor rather than the vanquished of our longest war. Milley, standing on that perch of honor like a ridiculously bemedaled Third-World Dictator, showed no respect for those who spoke with love and dignity about the ones they had lost on that terrible day.
General Milley,
TR had a hidden stick of quiet dignity when speaking of American strength. You spoke like a besotted fool in uniform with a broken twig, showing your incompetence and weakness as the Chief Military Officer of our Country in its most diminished hour, and that is not The American Way.
You have many medals hung from your uniform. Unfortunately, your uniform is missing the only one that matters: a badge of honor.
You must have lost that one along the way.
- Emes