The Blood of Patriots and Tyrants

God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty.... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure. Thomas Jefferson

I think of this quote a lot. I have seen the last two lines in almost every quote page that has Jefferson in it. Unfortunately people don't realize how important that first line is. It is borderline prophetic. So powerful a message that the government has made it a part of it's culture.

How would you fight this ideology that a lethargic populace, after twenty years, would become a rebellious resistance? Distraction.

1774-1783 American Revolution

1812-1815 Second American Revolution
1846-1848 Spanish American War
1861-1965 Civil War
1898 Second Spanish War
1917 WWI
1941-1945 WWII
1950-1953 Korean Conflict
1970-1975 Viet Nam
1990-1991 Gulf War
2001-2003 Iraq (major aggressions within these years)

Although there were a lot of occupations, operations, and battles within these years, it seems these were the major ones Americans rallied around. These wars, I am not saying were engineered as a direct response to Jefferson's twenty year observation, but it does seem to fit that we seem to have major wars between 10-30 years consistently since the Revolution.