Paul Craig Roberts | June 12 2012 I have always been intrigued
by the Battle of Bull Run, the opening battle of the US Civil
War, known to southerners as the War of Northern Aggression.
Extreme hubris characterized both sides, the North before the
battle and the South afterwards. Republican politicians and
their ladies in their finery road out to Manassas, the Virginia
town through which the stream, Bull Run, flowed, in carriages to
watch the Union Army end the “Southern Rebellion” in one fell
swoop. What they witnessed instead was the Union Army fleeing
back to Washington with its tail between its legs. The flight of
the northern troops promoted some southern wags to name the
battle, the Battle of Yankee Run. The outcome of the battle,
left the South infected with the hubris that had so abruptly
departed the North. The southerners concluded that they had
nothing to fear from cowards who ran away from a fight. “We have
nothing to worry about from them,” decided the South. It was
precisely at this point that h