![]() The key to overcoming this strategy is to work around it - shunning the hyperactive, close-range, quick-kill strategy that underpins what was once called AirSea Battle and the third offset strategy, and doing something else entirely, enhanced by favorable geography and a long-standing alliance structure. A2/AD is a defensive strategy, focused on an intention to deprive American forces, particularly air and naval forces, of their preferred method of warfighting. The current view of dealing with a generic A2/AD environment is unnecessarily focused on a tech-heavy widget-on-widget battle fought at the tactical level, devoid of military objectives and with limited support from allied nations. This illustrates, on the tactical level, the Pentagon’s current vision for dealing with the so-called anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) environment. While the diminished brigade successfully reached the wrong Russian guns and slaughtered the gunners, the only objective that they secured was to ensure that they could retreat at no hazard from the artillery fire they had just attacked through. The 1854 charge in the Crimean War involved an unsupported light cavalry charge directed against the wrong objective at the conclusion of the Battle of Balaclava, which the British had already won. “ The Charge of the Light Brigade” provides a classic example of the subordination of military skill in favor of courage and stubbornness, seasoned with a generous measure of poor leadership and a dash of sheer chaos. – Marshal Pierre François Joseph Bosquet, observing the Light Brigade Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Charge of the Light BrigadeĬ’est magnifique, mais ce n’est pas la guerre: c’est de la folie. Into the jaws of Death, Into the mouth of hell, Stormed at with shot and shell, Boldly they rode and well, This article was originally published in 2016.Ĭannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them,Ĭannon in front of them, Volleyed and thundered If anything, Brooke is trying to glorify the men who died based on how they lived rather than what they were doing when they died.Editor’s Note: This week, War on the Rocks is featuring some old favorites from the archives. Brooke highlights that any loss of life is cruel as it terminates the human experiences we all partake in. They shared the same experiences we have every day and would most likely continue those experiences for several more years had they not died in battle. He makes it very clear that all those who died in battle were not born soldiers. The poem consists of descriptions of very human experiences such as love and watching sunsets. Brooke individualizes the perished troops and gives them a “story” to their lives. Rupert Brooke describes it best in his poem “The Dead”. ![]() War no longer seemed distant as the possibility of knowing someone who died in battle severely increased with each passing year. When that excuse finally arrived and the First World War began, the mentality dramatically shifted as tens of thousands of people were dying every day without a clear reason as to why. Sixty years later, this mentality led to several European powers being eager to find an excuse to wage war with one another. In the 19th century, the battlefield was considered just as much a place for nations to show off their “muscle” and military wit as it was to settle diplomatic disputes. Instead, most of us would feel contempt towards the leader giving orders and pity for the soldiers who followed them. Nowadays, we might refer to this as “blind obedience”, and would rarely declare it an act of valor. Rather than describing the pointless loss of life during that charge, Tennyson chooses to glorify the soldiers’ choice to courageously follow through with the orders without hesitation over its feasibility. Subsequently, most of them died without having gained much during the attack. Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem, “The Charge of the Light Brigade” highlights a moment during the Crimean War where 600 British soldiers mistakenly charged heavily fortified Russian artillery forces after receiving incorrect orders.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |