My country, right or wrong....

[jhrobbins]

but right or wrong, my country.

Interesting concept and one that is explored in a terrific essay at the following


http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6103.htm

[blm]

1. When it's right KEEP it right, when it's wrong MAKE IT RIGHT.

Kerry uses this often - the Vietnam vets used it when they returned.

[Monkeyman]

3. Yes we Did and still are

[Robbien]

2. "If right, to be kept right, and, if wrong, to be set right."

Now who knew that inane "right or wrong, my country" phrase was a bastardization of such a good phrase.

Thanks

[John Gauger]

4. the full quote is

"My country - in her dealings with foreign powers may she always be in the right, and, right or wrong, always successful." It was actually one of the least hubristic and jingoistic toasts given that night. I don't remember who said though or when and where.

[mcscajun]

7. See Post #6.

:)

[FloridaPat]

5. Had enough of that crap in the 60's. Stopped believing it then.

Don't even believe in the gov't now.

[mcscajun]

6. Yet the phrase does go back much farther than the writer imagines

"My country, right or wrong." I've always subconsciously ascribed those words to some great American soldier-statesman, perhaps George Washington or Nathan Hale. I expect many have likewise assumed. Perhaps that's because it's been a soldier's credo and an inspiration to generations of patriotic Americans.

It did not originate with Carl Schurz, but indeed, with an American military hero. It was swiftly challenged by a future American President.

The American military hero was Commodore Stephen Decatur; the future American President, John Quincy Adams.

"I can never join with my voice in the toast which I see in the papers attributed to one of our gallant naval heroes. I cannot ask of heaven success, even for my country, in a cause where she should be in the wrong. Fiat justitia, pereat coelum*. My toast would be, may our country always be successful, but whether successful or otherwise, always right." -- in a letter to John Adams (August 1, 1816)

He was referring to a contemporary and popular phrase "My Country, Right or Wrong!" taken from Stephen Decatur's famous toast: "Our Country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right, but our country, right or wrong."

*Let justice be done though heaven should fall.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

8. "My country is the world, and my religion is to do good." - Tom Paine

"Patriotism is the most foolish of passions, and the passsion of fools" - Schopenhauer