Military blunders

 Today I finished a course from the Teaching Company entitled “Military Blunders.”  We listened to about a dozen of the 24 lectures on our return from California, including accounts of disasters like Napoleon’s retreat from Russia, the Battle of Little Big Horn, and the Charge of the Light Brigade.  Sometimes we would just look at each other in disbelief when we heard details of the some of the debacles.

The last lecture, which I heard today, summed up the failures.  The professor was amazed that military leaders didn’t seem to learn from past mistakes.  He then gave what he felt was the best example.  Keep in mind that this course was recorded in 2008.

His example was the area of Afghanistan and western Pakistan.  He noted that armies have been fighting over this piece of territory since Alexander the Great.  The Persians fought here, as did the Mongols, the British, and the Russians, among others.  He noted that the terrain is rugged, with places to hide and launch guerrilla warfare.  He noted the mixture of tribal groups, and the lack of centralized control.  Modern armies that believed the primitive people could be brought to heel kept losing, and he wondered why military leaders failed to heed historical lessons.  Good question.