Quote of the day 26th August 2023









Whatever I may think of him as a political leader or as a man, Napoleon had few equals and no superiors in his understanding of the art and science of war.

Both Napoleon and his nemesis, the Duke of Wellington, had some important things to say on the importance of time on the battlefield, and none more significant that the quote above, "ask of me anything you like except time."

And in the current crisis in Ukraine, this is what too many Western leaders - with the partial exception of the governments of the UK and several of the nations which border Russia such as Poland and Lithuania - have failed to understand.

The Washington Post has a powerful article (see link at bottom of this post) about the cost to Ukraine of the time spent by President Biden and other Western leaders in making up their minds to send equipment which was always going to be needed and was eventually sent. It has given Russia time to dig in and build a massive network of fortifications in occupied Ukraine. In one of the few military actions since their illegal and unproved  invasion which have displayed even a hint of competence, the Russian army has turned much of the Ukrainian territory they hold into a string of heavily defended fortresses. 

Today's Russian generals - at least, the ones who have not yet fallen out of a window or otherwise mysteriously died - are trying to stop the Ukrainians from liberating their country in the same way their Soviet grandfathers stopped the Germans at Kursk.

They won't succeed. But there will be a high cost in blood and treasure to overcome the defences which the Russians should never have been given time to build.

Opinion | Ukraine maps show the price of allies' hesitation - Washington Post

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nick Herbert on his visit to flood hit areas of Cumbria

Please note that the post below was published more than ten year ago on 21st November 2009 Nick Herbert MP, shadow cabinet member for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, was in Cumbria this morning to see the areas affected by the flooding. He writes on Conservative Home about his visit. Here is an extract. I’ve been in Cumbria today to see the areas affected by the floods. I arrived early in Keswick where I met officials from the Environment Agency. Although the river levels had fallen considerably and homes were no longer flooded, the damage to homes had been done. And the water which had got into houses wasn’t just from the river – it was foul water which had risen from the drains. I talked to fire crews who were pumping flood water back into the river, and discovered that they were from Tyne & Wear and Lancashire. They had been called in at an hours’ notice and had been working on the scene ever since, staying at a local hotel. You cannot fail to be impressed by the...
Read more

Quotes of the day 19th August 2020

Image
"Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise."  ( Cato the Elder , who lived 234 BC - 149 BC, quoted in "Lives" by Plutarch.) There is a similar saying by Germany's Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck: Benjamin Franklin is supposed to have put the same saying in a more humorous form: "Wise men profit by the mistakes of others, while fools will not learn even from their own blunders." See also this thread on the "Quote Investigator" website . Let us all be wise and learn from the events of the last few days.
Read more

Quote of the day 24th July 2020

I was moved to put the passage below forward as a quote today when I saw a horrible post on twitter from someone writing that it was "excellent" that someone who took a different view from her about Brexit had died. I won't write which way round it was so that all the Remain supporters can assume the post was from a Brexit fanatic welcoming the death of a remainer and all the Leavers can assume it was a Remainiac welcoming one less Brexiteer. There's been plenty of nasty stuff on both sides but if you catch anyone of your own viewpoint  posting something like that who might listen to you, please do call them out on it - and point out that they're giving everyone on your side of the argument a bad name. Anyway, here's the quote from John Donne.
Read more