slowpoke wrote:
If limitIng your statement to since the early 1800's, I might agree with you. But there have been stretches where the French Army (and leadership) was the best in the world. Under Louis 14 in particular (Condé especially but all of his Marshals) the French Military was the best in the world. Actually one of his best opponents was French too, Louis rejected Prince Eugene of Savoy for service and then he went on to Austrian service and ended up being the key leader to halt Louis' advances. Napolean's Marshals were mostly pretty good too.
Truth.
Remember, the French were the first to use smokeless powder.
The French failures of World War 2 and Viet Nam can probably be directly attributed to their flawed doctrine that the developed as a result of World War 1.
The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.
slowpoke wrote:
If limitIng your statement to since the early 1800's, I might agree with you. But there have been stretches where the French Army (and leadership) was the best in the world. Under Louis 14 in particular (Condé especially but all of his Marshals) the French Military was the best in the world. Actually one of his best opponents was French too, Louis rejected Prince Eugene of Savoy for service and then he went on to Austrian service and ended up being the key leader to halt Louis' advances. Napolean's Marshals were mostly pretty good too.
Truth.
Remember, the French were the first to use smokeless powder.
The French failures of World War 2 and Viet Nam can probably be directly attributed to their flawed doctrine that the developed as a result of World War 1.
Their doctrine was flawed going *in* to WWI, and contributed to the horrific and often quite useless casualties they took. But even then, the common French soldier was much better than his officers and doctrine. Basically everything after Napoleon was a troubled nation in decline (political instability, population plateau and then slow decline when everyone else's was expanding, etc) desperate to take shortcuts to recapture past glory. Much foolishness resulted.
Maybe we're just jaded, but your villainy is not particularly impressive. -Ennesby
If you know what you're doing, you're not learning anything. -Unknown
Sanity is the process by which you continually adjust your beliefs so they are predictively sound. -esr
So it wasn't just the British Army that was Lions led by Jackasses.
The use of the word "but" usually indicates that everything preceding it in a sentence is a lie.
E.g.:
"I believe in Freedom of Speech, but". . .
"I support the Second Amendment, but". . .
--Randy
