Random Wednesday- "wrong for the next war"

"Although the French did not yet know it, the slaughter at Morhange snuffed out the bright flame of the doctrine of the offensive. It died on a field in Lorraine where at the end of the day nothing was visible but corpses strewn in rows and sprawled in the awkward attitudes of sudden death as if the place had been swept by a malignant hurricane. It was one of those lessons, a survivor realized afterward, "by which God teaches the law to kings." The power of the defense that was to transform the initial war of movement into a four-year war of position and eat up a generation of European lives revealed itself at Morhange. Foch, the spiritual father of Plan 17, the man who taught, "There is only one way of defending ourselves-- to attack as soon as we are ready," was there to see and experience it. For four more years of relentless, merciless, useless killing the belligerents beat their heads against it. In the end it was Foch who presided over victory. By then the lesson learned proved wrong for the next war." -The Guns of August

I read this paragraph on Monday and thought it was brilliant. This is such a good book. It's dry and all about military tactics, but really it is about so much more than that. I really think anyone who get elected to public office should have to read The Guns of August

The post I'll being doing tomorrow will be about the stupidity of WWI, Armistice/Veteran's Day and how perhaps we should observe that day differently.

Thanks for reading.

-Michael