Carl von Clausewitz - They don't make 'em like that no more.
The Kingdom of Prussia was one of Europe's most formidable empires. It rose in the early years of the last Millennium, something to do with the Arabic world, I think, and then proceeded to form what is now the Germany of Today.
The Witz was their most famous and successful Leader.
Whilst reading up recently about a Prussian military victory over the German city of Mainz and how Clausewitz's force of some 40,000 men and 200 cannons captured it within a matter of weeks from the 17,000 men & 170 cannoned Garrison of French.
In traditionally French style, they marched out of the town whistling La Marseillaise, flying the sort of flags you might see on a Persil advert.
The French somehow considered this whopping great defeat to be a whopping great victory...
And then I began doing a bit of further reading into other Military victories - of which there are thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, that have collected over the past two thousand years. Us Europeans are a greedy bunch.
All it takes is for you to run out of milk and before you can make it back from the shops, there's a fleet of Spaniards, sailing up your lawn.
Fucking Spaniards.
Anyhow.. - so I was reading about all these military victories, from great victories still celebrated today, such as the Battle of Stanford Bridge - where one drunken Yorkshireman fended off, like, ten billiontrillion Vikings, with a stick, to some of history's greatest arsekickings, such as the British efforts in 1940 Dunkirk.
Then a thought occurred to me. What are we fighting for today?
I don't mean Afghanistan or Iraq - I mean on the Grand Scheme of Things - what are we fighting for?
Back in the 'old days', IE, pre 1901, the end to the Boer War - in my opinion the last 'land grab' war, Countries had Agendas.
Look at the Spaniards during the Armada years - their Empire was not to be trifled with and they controlled the continents of the Americas. The French had their foothold too - in India, where they were a bloody pest to us, and other Caribbean Islands, where they were also a bloody pest to us, and also in Canada... where again.. they were a bloody pest to us.
At the end of the day - Britain won. She did better than the rest.
But yet, I talk about all this in the past tense - because it is in the past. In this modern World, there no longer exists any form of Agenda apart from Economy. OK - it's good that we no longer have enormous slaughtering matches like those of Ypres, WWI. May such a bloody battle never occur again. Half a million men lost their loves over one town - which ultimately was removed from the map due to the fighting that killed those men.
But it will happen again. And again, and again, and again.
Where are our Countries going?
When will the lines of the modern Map change?
In what direction will they change?
How many men will die making them change?
Because rest assured - WWII is not the last, great war. It is simply the greatest war we know.
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