And
there's nothing mysterious about the way Prussia or Napoleon or anybody
else has solved their military problems. No occult forces are involved,
any more than there is in building a canal or hunting tigers. The real
general is, in a sense, a postgraduate hunter, or an advanced,
all-American quarterback.
One phase of the military work is significant and should cause
reflection. The punishment for errors in war is very severe. A leader
who makes mistakes may not only pay for them with his own blood but
others too may suffer with him. In war we must obey our leaders whether
they are right or wrong. How great, do you suppose, are those hordes
that have been sacrificed on history's battlefields to the goddess of
ignorance?
Napoleon says in one of his maxims, "Read and reread the campaigns of
Alexander, Caesar, Gustavus Adolphus, Turrenne, Eugene, and Frederick;
take them for your model; that is the only way of becoming a great
captain, to obtain the secrets of the art of war." To read more
intelligently such history we should know something about solving
problems in minor tactics.
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