Mitch McConnell Quotes
The worst experience any majority can have is that you convene and you look around and nothing's ready to go.
McConnell, Mitch. Interview with Politico. Politico, 18 Jan. 2017.
He was reacting to the Japanese Defense of Okinawa which was failing on every front. When Japan started the war with America, its leaders were not at all convinced that they could drive America from the Pacific, but they were convinced that America would not spend the men and material to invade Japanese territory and that they would be able to negotiate a peace at some point if the price of invasion was too high. That assumption was brought into doubt.
Burns phrase “mice an’ men” is later used as the title of John Steinbeck’s novel – Of Mice and Men, 1939.
Root was serving as Secretary of War at the time. The army of the United States was in sad shape. Congress did not want to appropriate much money for the military as there was no one to fight any longer. Indians had been subdued, relations with Canada were excellent. Mexico was too weak to be a threat, and the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans protected against invasion by large forces. The navy was in much better shape and could protect against invasion from abroad anyway. The Republicans then were in control of government and were generally very isolationist. And there was the traditional American animus to a standing Army. See {601390} and {592824} for examples of that attitude. The army itself was a set of individual fiefdoms with nepotism and cronyism rampant with no general staff to have the big picture. Theodore Roosevelt and Root, unlike most other Republicans, wanted to reform and build up the army as well as strengthen the navy,
Addison Mitchell McConnell Jr. is an American politician, serving since 1985 as United States senator for Kentucky, the senior senator since 1999, and since January 20, 2021, as Senate Minority Leader. He previously served as Senate Majority Leader from 2015 to 2021. He is married to former Secretary of Transportation and former Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao. In 2015 and 2019, Time listed McConnell as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
