What's your "favorite" war(s)?

[Animavore]

The inner war with myself.

Outside of that I've no real interest in war. Nor have I got much sympathy for the people who get involved. They had a choice.

Usually I prefer war films like Schindlers List about the normal people who end up having their lives ruined by the stupidity of men.

You will LOVE "W", then. :twisted:

Really? I can't imagine liking it.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The inner war with myself.

Outside of that I've no real interest in war. Nor have I got much sympathy for the people who get involved. They had a choice.

Usually I prefer war films like Schindlers List about the normal people who end up having their lives ruined by the stupidity of men.

You will LOVE "W", then. :twisted:

Really? I can't imagine liking it.

In one scene he refers to John Quincy Adams as having been president "300 hundred years ago or something?"

[eXcommunicate]

The Greco-Persian Wars... Marathon, Thermopylae, Artemesium, Salamis, Plataea, Mycale.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The Greco-Persian Wars... Marathon, Thermopylae, Artemesium, Salamis, Plataea, Mycale.

Phillip and Alexander.

[eXcommunicate]

The Greco-Persian Wars... Marathon, Thermopylae, Artemesium, Salamis, Plataea, Mycale.

Phillip and Alexander.

I prefer the more "righteous" victories of the Greeks in the earlier conflicts as it was they who were being invaded, rather than Philip and Alexander who were the invaders (although Phil and Alex are pretty cool too).

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The Greco-Persian Wars... Marathon, Thermopylae, Artemesium, Salamis, Plataea, Mycale.

Phillip and Alexander.

I prefer the more "righteous" victories of the Greeks in the earlier conflicts as it was they who were being invaded, rather than Philip and Alexander who were the invaders (although Phil and Alex are pretty cool too).

So, then, the Peloponnesian Wars?

[eXcommunicate]

The Greco-Persian Wars... Marathon, Thermopylae, Artemesium, Salamis, Plataea, Mycale.

Phillip and Alexander.

I prefer the more "righteous" victories of the Greeks in the earlier conflicts as it was they who were being invaded, rather than Philip and Alexander who were the invaders (although Phil and Alex are pretty cool too).

So, then, the Peloponnesian Wars?

I find those conflicts interesting as well. Greek vs. Greek, drawing in different factions from surrounding lands, especially the Persians obviously. The times between the Greco-Persian Wars and Alexander's conquests are very very interesting times for study. So much intrigue, glorious victories, heartbreaking reversals, hubris, generosity, petty vindictiveness, chauvinism, alliance switching, revolts, mob rule, aristocratic rule, monarchies, oligarchies, democracies, demagogues, heroes, villains, and cowards, all of it rolled into one huge package of human tragedy. The Greek world for about 150 years was a perfect microcosm of the world at-large. If one were to start learning about the foundations of the Western world, there would be no better place than Ancient Greece. So much of what happened then has been repeated over and over in our history. We never learn, but our ancestors continue to cry out.

[AshtonBlack]

So much intrigue, glorious victories, heartbreaking reversals, hubris, generosity, petty vindictiveness, chauvinism, alliance switching, revolts, mob rule, aristocratic rule, monarchies, oligarchies, democracies, demagogues, heroes, villains, and cowards, all of it rolled into one huge package of human tragedy.

Sounds like "The Bush Years." hehe.

[klr]

Burma, WW2, particularly the Chindit campaign, and the main battles from Imphal onwards. One of my favorite authors, John Masters, served in the campaign, and wrote vividly about it (The Road to Mandalay), as did Slim, in his "Defeat into Victory"

I finally got around to reading Defeat into Victory a couple of months ago. It's hard to find, but a friend of mine lent me his copy. I have a number of books on the Burma campaign. The 'forgotten' 14th Army was one of the most polyglot armies in history, and some of the troops must have had no real business in being there or no great motivation to fight. They had also taken such a beating from the Japanese that they had a massive inferiority complex. Yet Slim found a way to inspire and motivate them. Reading about 'Uncle Bill' Slim is like taking a Leadership 101 class.

[JimC]

Burma, WW2, particularly the Chindit campaign, and the main battles from Imphal onwards. One of my favorite authors, John Masters, served in the campaign, and wrote vividly about it (The Road to Mandalay), as did Slim, in his "Defeat into Victory"

I finally got around to reading Defeat into Victory a couple of months ago. It's hard to find, but a friend of mine lent me his copy. I have a number of books on the Burma campaign. The 'forgotten' 14th Army was one of the most polyglot armies in history, and some of the troops must have had no real business in being there or no great motivation to fight. They had also taken such a beating from the Japanese that they had a massive inferiority complex. Yet Slim found a way to inspire and motivate them. Reading about 'Uncle Bill' Slim is like taking a Leadership 101 class.

I can recommend a book by George MacDonald Fraser (the author of the Flashman books) called "Quartered safe out here", a recollection of his time in Burma with the Border Regiment. Brilliant!

[klr]

Burma, WW2, particularly the Chindit campaign, and the main battles from Imphal onwards. One of my favorite authors, John Masters, served in the campaign, and wrote vividly about it (The Road to Mandalay), as did Slim, in his "Defeat into Victory"

I finally got around to reading Defeat into Victory a couple of months ago. It's hard to find, but a friend of mine lent me his copy. I have a number of books on the Burma campaign. The 'forgotten' 14th Army was one of the most polyglot armies in history, and some of the troops must have had no real business in being there or no great motivation to fight. They had also taken such a beating from the Japanese that they had a massive inferiority complex. Yet Slim found a way to inspire and motivate them. Reading about 'Uncle Bill' Slim is like taking a Leadership 101 class.

I can recommend a book by George MacDonald Fraser (the author of the Flashman books) called "Quartered safe out here", a recollection of his time in Burma with the Border Regiment. Brilliant!

Yes, I'm aware of that one - I've seen it quoted in a couple of other books dealing with the last months of the war. It's on my "to get" list. Once I get it, it would probably jump straight to the top of the reading queue, bypassing about 60 or 70 other books that I bought in the last couple of years, but have still to read ...

[Hermit]

when you do decide to use it, it must be with all the men and material required to "get the job done in the shortest time" rather than committing less (for political or economic reasons) to begin and having to "ramp up" later. If you can't do it that way, you are not ready to achieve those goals.

Historically speaking, most war efforts were regarded as sufficiently resourced at the time of their initiation. In WWI the German soldiers were expected to have returned back home from their invasion of France by Christmas. Hitler reckoned that the USSR required just a short, sharp push, whereupon it would collapse as easily as a house of cards. That's why the German armies got so badly caught out supply-wise with the onset of winter. Likewise, the US administration thought its technologically driven "shock and awe" strategy would solve the Iraq problem in short order. I feel it was similarly deluded when it took over from the French colonialists in Vietnam.

Nobody actually starts an invasion unless they feel confident that they are using a sufficient amount of resources to ensure success. Tragically, or luckily, their estimate as to what constitutes sufficient resources is way off the mark. Douglas Adams parodied those mistakes thusly: "After millennia of battle the surviving G'Gugvuntt and Vl'hurg realised what had actually happened, and joined forces to attack the Milky Way in retaliation. They crossed vast reaches of space in a journey lasting thousands of years before reaching their target where they attacked the first planet they encountered, Earth. Due to a terrible miscalculation of scale the entire battle fleet was swallowed by a small dog."

[Gawdzilla Sama]

On the other hand, Washington had to plead for arms and troops all through the Revolutionary War. The South knew they didn't have the resources to fight the North in the ACW, but they counted on England to come to their aid.

[Hermit]

On the other hand, Washington had to plead for arms and troops all through the Revolutionary War. The South knew they didn't have the resources to fight the North in the ACW, but they counted on England to come to their aid.

Did Washington initiate the war? I thought it was clear I was talking about "forward defense", and I think Ashton Black was implying that as well. As for the Confederates, it is also clear that they did think they had sufficient resources to win because they could reasonably regard British support as part of them.

I'd like to hear of an instance where an invader initiated a war in the full expectation to fail on account of not being willing or able to commit sufficient resources for success.

[Comte de Saint-Germain]

Satsuma rebellion, since it is so idolised by many who have little understanding about the meaning and significance of the Samurai class in Japan. And of course, the Whiskey Rebellion for obvious as well as philosophical reasons.