An email from Iraq……

Happy Mother’s Day! Hey, thought you might like this. The Major found it:

We ventured to remark, several months ago, that the Administration had shown its entire incompetency to conduct the present war. We regret to be compelled to reiterate this opinion, but the sad experience of every day has not only confirmed it, but demands, in the name of our beloved Union, that the Press of the country speak out and spare not.

It is undeniable that every move our army has made has been a blunder, our naval expeditions proved failures, and our battles resulted in defeats;with the exception of the brilliant little affair at Drainsville–the only bright spot in the dark and bloody panorama before us.

Can any man say that this wicked rebellion is any nearer being crushed out today than nine months ago, although millions upon millions of dollars have been expended and thousands of valuable lives lost in the unnatural conflict. When this rebellion broke out we had the respect and sympathy of the whole world on our side. We could procure loans of money from the great powers of Europe, and buy up, in their markets, any quantity of munitions of war our country might need.

By the bad management of the Administration all these advantages have been upset–we cannot now obtain from Europe a dollar, a cannon, or a pound of saltpetre; and those who we reckoned as friends have been made the allies of our enemies up in arms against us. Canada, our nearest neighbor, that tendered a regiment of lancers to fight in our behalf, have now eighty thousand men who have volunteered to fight against us!

We might overlook–nay, despise–all this and still maintain our self-respect and restore the Union, had not the Administration cast a fire-brand among the combustible material in the country by agitating the negro question in its councils, at a time it had no business there, and thereby driving off its Union friends in the South and border States, and injuriously dividing public sentiment in the North as to the objects of the war.

When we add to all this the peculations, and downright robbery, by officials high and low under this Administration, we have a gloomy picture from the contemplation of which every honest and loyal man must turn with horror and dismay. Public opinion is every day demanding in louder and louder tones that this Administration give up the ghost or the Union is irretrievably lost.

It has shown its incompetency to conduct the war successfully so far, and gives no promise for any better results in the future. We are not alone in expressing these opinions. Honest Republicans do not hesitate to give vent to the same doubts and fears as to the ability of this Administration to conduct the war. The Philadelphia Daily News a rabid Republican paper, says, unless something is done speedily to retrieve it, “the administration of Mr. Lincoln will prove to be the worst failure which the world has ever yet witnessed.”

We republish the article from the Daily News, of Saturday, which taken in connection with the recent speech of HON. THADDEUS STEVENS, to be found in another part of our paper, on the imbecility in the management of the war, indicates pretty plainly that confidence,
in LINCOLN’S Administration, even in its own household, is about expiring.

Mr. STEVENS concludes his remarks by begging “for Heaven’s sake not to go on piling mountains upon mountains of debt and taxation until the nation itself is destroyed in the operations of this war.” No people can, or will longer stand Millions of Taxes and Hundreds of Millions of Debt without some results for the honor and good of the country to show for it.

Valley Spirit, January 8, 1862, p. 4, c. 1

The spirit of defeat and retreat which abounded during the days of the Civil War has now invaded the halls of Congress. It’s always been present in our nations media.