Is America Victorious?

“They just don’t get it,” said one England fan – over the New York Post’s controversial decision to declare Team USA’s 1-1 draw with England on Saturday a ‘victory.’

Sorry to say, it’s the England fan who doesn’t ‘get it.’ The qualifier was the subhead: “The Greatest Tie since Bunker Hill.” We Brits clearly require an injection of historical perspective from time to time.

Bunker Hill was the 1775 battle between British forces marching out of Boston and the Colonial Army, dug in at Breed’s Hill (Bunker Hill was actually nearby, and played little part in the battle.) The Brits mercilessly assaulted the American fortifications, but found the Colonial Army to be a far tougher nut to crack than they’d anticipated (at that early stage in the war, the British still considered the Colonial Army to be an ill-trained militia of farmers and boys. Bunker Hill taught them otherwise.)


The American troops were disciplined and focused – General Putnam, leading the Colonial Army in the field, uttered the famous line “Don’t shoot ‘till you see the whites of their eyes” as the Brits clambered up the hill to assault the American fortifications – only to get driven back by a hail of point-blank musket fire.

Eventually, after a long and bloody battle, the British succeeded in taking Breed’s Hill and claimed ‘victory’ - yet they suffered over a thousand causalities – more than twice the loss of the Colonial Army. British commander General Clinton ruefully admitted: “A few more such victories would have shortly put an end to British dominion in America.”

Historians have generally placed the score as a nil-nil draw; noting that the Americans decimated the British forces and escaped swiftly from the field of battle – even preventing their wounded from being captured. British General Burgoyne later admitted that the American retreat had been “no flight; it was even covered with bravery and military skill.”

From a broader perspective, this ‘draw’ was undoubtedly a victory for the United States. It was the single greatest blow to the British Army during the whole War of Independence. It hardened King George III’s resolve to crush the insurrection – and increased support for the Independence movement across the thirteen colonies. In many ways, Bunker Hill was the turning point; turning a rebellion against taxation into a de facto battle for Independence; one that ultimately resulted in the birth of the United States.

But is it fair to compare the Battle of Bunker Hill to America’s 1-1 ‘victory’ on Saturday?

Well, considering that America has never gone further than the semi-finals of the world cup – and spent 40 years in qualifying exile after their one-time victory against England in 1950 – I think it is. To have drawn even with the England Team is nothing short of a victory. It means the Americans are still in with a shot of advancing into the quarter-finals. In that respect – in that the venerable England team failed to decisively knock the Americans out of the competition – the draw was as much a Pyrrhic victory for England as the Battle of Bunker Hill ultimately turned out to be.

America's 'victory' over England

According to some, football is a matter of life and death. Most Brits, on the other hand, feel it’s far more important than that.

Which is why an awful lot of English people have got their knickers thoroughly in a twist about today’s cover of the New York Post, in which the Americans loudly proclaimed a 1-1 ‘victory’ over England.


“It’s either a joke, or they just don’t get it,” one England fan surmised on Twitter.

I respectfully disagree. It’s not a joke and they clearly get it better than anybody in England does.

I caught the last fifteen minutes of the game in French on my SIRIUS radio and the moment the whistle blew, our Quebecois cousins concluded the same thing as the New York Post: “It wuz zee victory for zee Americans, non? Because zey did no lose.”

Besides, there’s something somewhat ironic about us complaining about this headline: Back in 1950 – on the only occasion the Americans have ever beaten England – the British newspapers were so confused by reports that the Americans had won that they assumed it was a typo; and the daily papers went ahead to report an England victory all the same. That’s considerably worse than reporting a draw as a ‘victory.’

It’s basically just snobbery on the part of us Englanders – magnified because we’re clearly the ones who don’t ‘get it’ - it being that our team definitely came away as losers on Saturday.

Rainy Day

English weather! Even though I'm thirty-four hundred miles away from Winchester, today it seemed like the traditional rain and damp followed me all the way to America!

Not that I mind, though. There's something lovely about the scent of fresh rain and, besides, I've got a pair of wellies if I need to go outside.

Britain is Doomed...

I've finally figured it out. We're all doomed. But it's not global warming or radical islam we need to be worried about. The biggest danger Britain faces is actually ourselves.

Have you noticed really what a bunch of miserable buggers we are?

In Britain, it seems the desire to moan about our problems is rapidly overtaking the desire to actually do anything about them.

I figured this out as Tina and I started trying to find apartments and cars in America. We asked and we got a lot of information - but instead of getting the skinny on what we SHOULD do, all people told us was what we SHOULDN'T.

Don't move there, it's ghetto.

Don't work for them, they don't pay enough.

Don't buy that make of car, they're unreliable.

That's too expensive. That's too cheap. That's too far away. That's too near.

It suddenly twigged in my brain. THIS is what's holding us back. Our own bloody attitudes.

Look back at history. To the days when the British Empire ruled a quarter of the globe and the Royal Navy dominated the seas. How did we Brits achieve that?

It certainly wasn't by sitting on our backsides, scoffing cookies into our mouth. Do you think Doctor David Livingston ever said to himself: "I don't want to go and explore Africa. Dirt. Flies. Mosquitos. Bugger that for a game of soldiers."

Check out Cecil Rhodes, who said "I want to paint the globe red" and headed off to Africa to claim it for Britain. They named a bloody country after him! You certainly don't get a country named after you if all you dream of doing is getting chosen to be on Who Wants to be a Millionaire.

Here's what's wrong with Britain today. We're so preoccupied with what we CAN'T do that we've forgotton to slog on and achieve what we CAN.

Tina's favourite phrase du jour is an ancient Chinese proverb: The Person Who Says it Cannot be Done should not interrupt the Person Doing It.

Let's look at another dominant force in history. America.

Look at the foundation of the United States. Thirteen British colonies who got sick of being taxed without having a say in the matter (it's a misconception that they rebelled against excessive taxing. The tax levels were quite low - but the colonies had no say over the level of taxation or how it was spent.)

If modern attitudes prevailed, the founding fathers would have sat around their local, quaffing pints and complaining about the fussy Brits interferring with how their lives are run - kind of like modern British people do with the Europeon Union.

But instead, the founding fathers started a movement that gave birth to the modern world's first democracy. They decided what they wanted, got up off their backsides and went out to achieve it, despite the obstacles in their way.

It's the American way, isn't it?

1. Decide what you want.


2. Get off your arse.


3. Achieve it.

Distilled down to it's purest form, that's what the American dream is all about.

Think of all the millions of people who left their homes to journey to The New World. The Irish, fleeing the potato famine. The Jews, fleeing persecution in Europe. The Germans - out to grab land in the same way they still like to grab sunbeds. In a global act of Darwinism, the most adventurous and ambitious people went to the New World and became the American people. It's that spirit of endevour that's at the very heart of everything American.

But there's no British equivilant to the American's Dream. Britain has brushed it's imperialistic heritage under an apologetic carpet. Are there any explorers or entrepreneurs left out there?

I don't think so.

Just look at most people's ambitions. The paper printed a list recently. What does the average youngster want to do?

1. Become a pop-star on Pop Idol


2. Marry a premier league footballer and spend his money on designer handbags


3. Win the lottery

It seems modern ambitions revolve around the principle of winning fame, fortune and glory without ever having to make an effort.

And the people who still have an ounce of ambition left? That's soon trodden into the dirt by the prevailing defeatist attitude. People are always focused on what you CAN'T do. Not what you can. There's always a reason why it's not worth getting up off the sofa.

And the terrible thing?

500,000 immigrants arrive in Britain every year willing to do what we won't. They'll live ten to a house, work ninety hour weeks and stack shelves for a living with the stubborn ambition of making their lives whatever they want them to be.

What could we, as a nation, achieve if we still had that spirit of enterprise?