War History

As Victor Davis Hanson explores the history of the Peloponesian War in this excerpt from his latest book " A War Like No Other" some interesting comparisons are made on how to fight and win a long war. The astute reader can also draw some comparisons between the left and the right in america. Originally in National Review I link it at Benador because she provides links to previous installments.

"True, Sparta could execute generals like Thorax and shun the returning prisoners from Pylos, but in comparison to Athens it gave latitude to commanders in a way unknown at Athens. If Thucydides was exiled for failing to save Amphipolis from Brasidas, later in the same theater Brasidas most surely was not recalled to Sparta after failing to reach Torone in time and thus losing the entire city to Cleon. That the Athenian assembly exiled, executed, or fined almost every notable general it ordered on campaign did not make commanders more accountable as much as timid and prone to second-guessing. Thus, after any setback, whether in the Delium campaign or at Arginusae, they would most likely not come back to Athens, in fear of a trial. So the city did not often learn from its mistakes but almost always scared generals into being too cautious or reckless, their decisions based on anticipating what the voters back home might approve on any particular day."

Sound familiar, our left wants to burn our Generals and the right wants them to fight for us and win the war. The politicos try to run the war and lose, the generals run the war and win. I pulled this particular paragraph for that reason, to point out the insanity going on in our own senate at this time. All this blabbery spittle about oversight, accountability and torture is for aesthetic posturing, photo ops and John McCain, Chuck Shumer and the rest screaming 'look at me, I am important to myself' while hamstringing our generals and troops. I will leave with a quote from a founder of our Freedom and Liberty.

"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined." —Patrick Henry

(The Federalist Patriot)