sclerotic

George Washington was brilliant in retreat
a crucial skill in asymmetric war
to deal the British Empire a defeat
the likes of which it hadn't known before
a sniper crouched behind each rustic wall
could decimate a rank drawn up in red
each puff of smoke, each whistling musket ball
another mercenary lamed or dead
but Arsenal of Liberty grew old
and snubbed the pleas for aid from chairman Ho
those founding myths that we've so oft retold
now that we hold the scepter aren't so
Progressives tug the lion by its beard
now we've become the empire we once feared