Sticks and stone will break our bones, but what are insults from the Obama administration doing to our national psyche?

First, Attorney General Eric Holder called us cowards. Sure, it was framed in the context of interracial issues, but a coward is a coward is a coward.  (Was he a coward when he faithfully executed former President Clinton’s final pardons, include one granted to Marc Rich -- yet another tax evader?)

Now, Holder’s boss, President Obama, confessed to our European friends, and others in the vicinity, that we’ve been arrogant.

So let’s see if we have this right. We’re cowardly, arrogant, we torture people, we don’t listen to our friends, we’re selfish and hence must be forced to share our wealth, our children are poorly educated, and our airports and infrastructure are substandard to China’s. What’d I miss?  

I don’t know about you American Thinker readers, but I’m getting bummed out. I’m not on suicide watch, but I am wondering about joining a local therapy group for those suffering from ISS (Insult Stress Syndrome).

ISS is a 12-step program that starts with participants, using their own name, saying, “Hi, I’m Lee, and I’m an arrogant coward, or, am I cowardly arrogant? I’m conflicted and suffer from a severe identify crisis.” And the similarly suffering others, huddled in the rented motel meeting room, chant back, “Welcome, Lee, so are we.”

The Civil War Confederate General Joe Johnston knew more about leadership than Obama and Holder combined.

Johnston’s army faced General William Tecumseh Sherman’s Union forces as Sherman marched toward Atlanta.  Johnston was a master at the art of strategic withdrawal.  But his tactics displeased Confederate President Jefferson Davis.  David relieved him shortly before the Battle of Atlanta because he had wisely avoided a major battle with Sherman’s army.  (His overly aggressive replacement, John Bell Hood, was a disaster.  He now has a U.S. military base named after him.)

Decades later, Joe Johnston was an honorary pallbearer at Sherman’s funeral.  As Sherman’s casket passed by, Johnston removed his hat in the cold rain as a sign of respect. A friend nearby suggested that he might do well to keep his hat on because of the weather.  Johnston replied, “If I was in his place and he standing here in mine, he would not put on his hat."  Johnston caught pneumonia and died several weeks later.

Back when General Johnston was relived of his command by Jefferson Davis, one of his soldiers said, “We loved him, because he made us love ourselves.” Obama and Holder seem intent on making us loathe ourselves.