OZ mentioned this excellent rant by the Minstrel Boy in a comment. What a terrific comparison between Alexander’s conquering army and our army of occupation in Iraq! Alexander’s phalanxes have tired after years of battle and conquest, and want to go home.

Alexander addressed his troops. He reminded them that he had been there with them every step of the way. He stripped himself naked and showed them where he bore scars from every single weapon known to man. It was all to no avail. Unable to sway his troops he called for priests and sacrifices. The omens were taken and the interpretation was unfavorable. Alexander agreed to turn back at last.

I can’t subscribe to the comparison entirely because Alexander was honest with his soldiers about his plans, and they enthusiastically followed him in the pursuit of conquest, booty and glory. These conditions do not apply today with our Army, which contains soldiers enlisted for many reasons, primarily a chance to climb the social ladder upon release.

Asking them to sign on for a share in the booty of looted foreign countries would not work. Promising them help in paying for a college education, or learning a trade for civilian life, has worked. (As we saw in the preceding article, some are learning infantry urban tactics for their civilian trade, and we’ll probably hear a lot more about that in the next two decades.)

And then, again, as the Minstrel Boy points out, Mr Bu$h is no Alexander.

George W. Bush cannot call upon any of Alexander's gifts. He has no scars from battle to show. He has no stories to share with soldiers over who saved whose life more times in battle. He has no moral authority or marshal imperitives to claim. He is a shrinking, shirking blame deflection machine. Soon, very soon, an army acknowledged to be without equal anywhere in the world will reach the same level as Alexander's. They will simply stop. Not because they are cowards, but because they can go no farther.

I’m not sure our Army will break in the sense of losing all discipline (which really is a voluntary quality and comes from within – discipline exerted from the outside is tyranny.) But I could imagine certain specific circumstances under which it would “break” in the sense of becoming a mass seeking escape rather than engagement.

Those who through the luck of birth or accident have never fought do not understand what combat is. They cannot comprehend the damage repeated calls to combat do to a man‘s spirit.

There are many lessons to be learned by studying history. Men tend to make the same mistakes over and over again. Circumstances may change, but the human frailties of greed and stupidity remain.

America is not Sparta, nor is it Macedonia, and the Likudniks who control our foreign and defense policy networks do not understand this. Or perhaps, inspired by un-American ideals, they do not care.