08-21-2003, 02:41 PM
Suicide bombers die for their cause, and they kill for their cause, as the Zealots of the Masada, the Greeks at Thermopylae, and the Texans at the Alamo, among others, killed and died for their causes(or maybe just because.) The legends tell us that they sold their lives for a "higher cause."
The recent attack on the U.N. HQ, not the U.S. HQ, tells the same story as the assassination of Masoud in Afghanistan and Sadat in Egypt, that some will kill and die for their cause beacuse they do not wish for the world to change in a particular direction. I suggest that the following article contains some unintentional irony about peace, war, causes, blood sacrifice, and most importantly, the power of legends on the minds of men.
The guiding principle is that : I am willing to bleed more than you are, and when you are tired of bleeding, you will quit and I will win. Clausewitz called War, among other things, a contest of wills, and would find this point of view in perfect harmony with his general Theory of War.
An article addressing a national myth: Fehrenbach on The Alamo
(Note: T. R. Fehrenbach is the author "This Kind of War" one of the best treatments of the Korean War ever written. He was there, needless to say.)
The cold hard facts, exposed by rigorous historical analysis, of the actual battle of the Alamo are as follows:
Forget what you see in the movies.
In an early morning assault that took less than an hour, Santa Anna's well disciplined troops overran a fortified position through what was intended as a surprise assault. A group of Texians whose leadership kept hoping against hope for aid from Fannin, Houston, or anyone, stayed to defend their walls for a variety of reasons, however their frank respect for General Cos and his Lancers made any hope of a withdrawal through superb cavalry country an invitation to their own slaughter. (Check out Fannin at Goliad shortly after The Alamo for the grim reality of "rebels and militia" against professional soldiers, with bayonets, supported by cavalry and some artillery. See also Washington's militia and irregulars versus Hessians and Brits using the bayonet in the early stages of The American Revolution.)
The Alamo legend outgrew the facts and became a part of the national myth of a people. That is a human trait that crosses all national and cultural boundaries: be ye Persian, Greek, Serb, Arab, Hebrew, German, or French, your national mythology is a powerful motive force. (Robert Kaplan does a better job of explaining this than I do in Balkan Ghosts)
To understand why, of all targets, the Terrorists attacked a U.N. building, we should probably consider Fehrenbach's comments on the issue of "blood sacrifice" and how, as much as we might wish it were not so, that belief is alive and well is a potent force to be reckoned with.
"Victory or Death." Thus cried Travis at The Alamo. He certainly wrote letters to that effect.
"Victory or Death" Thus cry those who oppose the creation of a modern Iraq that could join the community of nations as other than a pariah state, and for that matter, those who oppose U.S. and "Western" influence in the Muslim World.
"Victory or Death" The cry of some factions in the Palestinian Camp.
If you sit in the U.N., and are an internationalist trying to make the world a more peaceful, less bloody place, the very last person you can work with is someone who will not negotiate, who instead, like Mel Gibson's character portrayal of William Wallace in Braveheart take on the attitude of no compromise:
Victory or Death.
"The more things change, the more they stay the same."
The recent attack on the U.N. HQ, not the U.S. HQ, tells the same story as the assassination of Masoud in Afghanistan and Sadat in Egypt, that some will kill and die for their cause beacuse they do not wish for the world to change in a particular direction. I suggest that the following article contains some unintentional irony about peace, war, causes, blood sacrifice, and most importantly, the power of legends on the minds of men.
The guiding principle is that : I am willing to bleed more than you are, and when you are tired of bleeding, you will quit and I will win. Clausewitz called War, among other things, a contest of wills, and would find this point of view in perfect harmony with his general Theory of War.
An article addressing a national myth: Fehrenbach on The Alamo
(Note: T. R. Fehrenbach is the author "This Kind of War" one of the best treatments of the Korean War ever written. He was there, needless to say.)
The cold hard facts, exposed by rigorous historical analysis, of the actual battle of the Alamo are as follows:
Forget what you see in the movies.
In an early morning assault that took less than an hour, Santa Anna's well disciplined troops overran a fortified position through what was intended as a surprise assault. A group of Texians whose leadership kept hoping against hope for aid from Fannin, Houston, or anyone, stayed to defend their walls for a variety of reasons, however their frank respect for General Cos and his Lancers made any hope of a withdrawal through superb cavalry country an invitation to their own slaughter. (Check out Fannin at Goliad shortly after The Alamo for the grim reality of "rebels and militia" against professional soldiers, with bayonets, supported by cavalry and some artillery. See also Washington's militia and irregulars versus Hessians and Brits using the bayonet in the early stages of The American Revolution.)
The Alamo legend outgrew the facts and became a part of the national myth of a people. That is a human trait that crosses all national and cultural boundaries: be ye Persian, Greek, Serb, Arab, Hebrew, German, or French, your national mythology is a powerful motive force. (Robert Kaplan does a better job of explaining this than I do in Balkan Ghosts)
To understand why, of all targets, the Terrorists attacked a U.N. building, we should probably consider Fehrenbach's comments on the issue of "blood sacrifice" and how, as much as we might wish it were not so, that belief is alive and well is a potent force to be reckoned with.
"Victory or Death." Thus cried Travis at The Alamo. He certainly wrote letters to that effect.
"Victory or Death" Thus cry those who oppose the creation of a modern Iraq that could join the community of nations as other than a pariah state, and for that matter, those who oppose U.S. and "Western" influence in the Muslim World.
"Victory or Death" The cry of some factions in the Palestinian Camp.
If you sit in the U.N., and are an internationalist trying to make the world a more peaceful, less bloody place, the very last person you can work with is someone who will not negotiate, who instead, like Mel Gibson's character portrayal of William Wallace in Braveheart take on the attitude of no compromise:
Victory or Death.
"The more things change, the more they stay the same."
Cry 'Havoc' and let slip the Men 'O War!
In War, the outcome is never final. --Carl von Clausewitz--
Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum
John 11:35 - consider why.
In Memory of Pete
In War, the outcome is never final. --Carl von Clausewitz--
Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum
John 11:35 - consider why.
In Memory of Pete