“How bad was our war management? Well, until recently there were three levels of wartime incompetence: Bad, Very Bad and War of 1812 Bad.”
Joel Achenbach in a short, humorous essay about the War of 1812.
Achenbach concludes: “That’s rock bottom. That’s what we mean by War of 1812 Bad. And maybe in a few years, historians will be able to tell us if there’s a new standard.”