Saturday, April 29, 2006

Memo to Rumsfeld and Bush: Go to the Library

....and check out a copy of The Great Boer War by Allen Lane, circa 1976. Go to page 379. Start reading.

"Britons and Boers both inhabited the veld, playing the same deadly game; the same sun and the same rain fell on both, but life was not the same for the hunted as the hunters. The British had bases to draw upon, inexhaustible supplies, overwhelming force; the Boers' sources of men and supplies steadily dwindled. In one sense time was on the side of the British for the Boers could not continue indefinitely. Yet, in another sense, time was on the side of the Boers, for the nature of guerilla warfare makes the objectives of the war different for the two contestants. In order to win, the British had either to kill or capture all their foes or force them to capitulate; the Boers on the other hand needed only to exist, they needed only to stay alive on the veld to deny the British their victory. They could not win, but they could keep the British from winning. The guerilla phase was a war of wills, an endurance contest. Each week that the Boers prolonged the struggle added to Britain's embarrassment, for while eacy minor victory of the Boers was a humiliation for their enemy, British victories, using crushing force on small bands of exhausted burghers, were without glory and added no credit to the army or the Empire."

Now. Are we clear?

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