Kagan at War
Recently, a reader of the blog Talking Points Memo pointed out that Fred Kagan, the military historian - sometimes called a "military expert" in the U.S. media - who helped to devise George Bush's plan to change the fortunes of the Iraq war with a surge of 20,000 troops in Baghdad, has a particularly antique expertise on military matters. In his contribution to TPM, reader PS wonders "how the surge would have been received if Kagan was accurately identified as 'an expert on Napoleon and the early 19th century Russian army.'"
Fair point, though of course the news that there is someone involved in formulating Bush's plans for Iraq who has not only read but has even written history books might seem encouraging. Until, that is, you realize that Kagan's expertise on Napoleon's military career - as evidenced by the title of his book, "The End of the Old Order: Napoleon and Europe, 1801-1805," seems to end with Napoleon's victory at Austerlitz; which is sort of like having written a book on the presidency of Geroge W. Bush that ends with the fall of the Taliban.
Josh Marshall, the editor of TPM, rightly asks what Kagan might have to say about The Peninsular War, Napoleon's disasterous failed invasion of Spain, which began in 1808, three years after Kagan's study concludes. The part of a PBS documentary on Napoleon's wars that deals with the catastophe in Spain suggests that President Bush might get better advice from an expert on Napoleon's ultimate missteps than from a man focussed on his early triumphs. Check out the following excerpt from the transcript of that documentary, in which four historians of Napoleon's failure explain what happened when the cakewalk Napoleon predicted in Spain - before the invasion he'd claimed "With my banner bearing the words 'Liberty and Emancipation from Superstition', I shall be regarded as the liberator of Spain" - failed to materialise:
By 1808, Napoleon had... sent 118,000 soldiers across into Spain to insure his rule. Determined to bend the Spanish people to his will, he had decided to make Spain a part of his empire. He imagined they would be welcomed. "With my banner bearing the words 'Liberty and Emancipation from Superstition,'" he said, "I shall be regarded as the liberator of Spain"
Nicole Gottieri: "Spain at that time was far behind all the other countries in Europe. Napoleon considered the Iberian Peninsula another world — with people from the Dark Ages - dominated by clergy, according to Napoleon, who were illiterate, ignorant, and fanatical. He thought that there would be no resistance whatsoever. Napoleon didn’t take the trouble to study the country he was going to invade. He didn’t think the Spanish people had the will to hold on to their independence."
Napoleon could never imagine that some people loved their countries as much as he loved his own. It was a failing, compounded by arrogance and pride, that would bring about his downfall.
On May 2, the Spanish people rose up against the French army in Madrid. By nightfall, 150 French soldiers were dead. The French retaliated, killing thousands of Spaniards. It was the start of a brutal, no-holds-barred war, marked by savagery on both sides. The French tortured and mutilated their prisoners; the Spanish did the same.
Michel Keratraut: "It’s a war of atrocities. It’s guerilla war — the word comes from this time. The French army has never fought this kind of war… It’s not at all the glorious war that they fought elsewhere."
Colonel John Robert Elting: "At this point you begin to see a failure of Napoleon's judgment. He had somehow lost his sense of proportion. He gets into Spain and he won't give up."
Thousands died, but there was no decisive victory. Napoleon would keep his armies in Spain for five years, unable to break the will of the Spanish people.
Jean Tulard: "Napoleon no longer accepts advice. Napoleon only believes in himself. He only has confidence in his star. So, he is going to be blinded."
Recently, a reader of the blog Talking Points Memo pointed out that Fred Kagan, the military historian - sometimes called a "military expert" in the U.S. media - who helped to devise George Bush's plan to change the fortunes of the Iraq war with a surge of 20,000 troops in Baghdad, has a particularly antique expertise on military matters. In his contribution to TPM, reader PS wonders "how the surge would have been received if Kagan was accurately identified as 'an expert on Napoleon and the early 19th century Russian army.'"
Fair point, though of course the news that there is someone involved in formulating Bush's plans for Iraq who has not only read but has even written history books might seem encouraging. Until, that is, you realize that Kagan's expertise on Napoleon's military career - as evidenced by the title of his book, "The End of the Old Order: Napoleon and Europe, 1801-1805," seems to end with Napoleon's victory at Austerlitz; which is sort of like having written a book on the presidency of Geroge W. Bush that ends with the fall of the Taliban.
Josh Marshall, the editor of TPM, rightly asks what Kagan might have to say about The Peninsular War, Napoleon's disasterous failed invasion of Spain, which began in 1808, three years after Kagan's study concludes. The part of a PBS documentary on Napoleon's wars that deals with the catastophe in Spain suggests that President Bush might get better advice from an expert on Napoleon's ultimate missteps than from a man focussed on his early triumphs. Check out the following excerpt from the transcript of that documentary, in which four historians of Napoleon's failure explain what happened when the cakewalk Napoleon predicted in Spain - before the invasion he'd claimed "With my banner bearing the words 'Liberty and Emancipation from Superstition', I shall be regarded as the liberator of Spain" - failed to materialise:
By 1808, Napoleon had... sent 118,000 soldiers across into Spain to insure his rule. Determined to bend the Spanish people to his will, he had decided to make Spain a part of his empire. He imagined they would be welcomed. "With my banner bearing the words 'Liberty and Emancipation from Superstition,'" he said, "I shall be regarded as the liberator of Spain"
Nicole Gottieri: "Spain at that time was far behind all the other countries in Europe. Napoleon considered the Iberian Peninsula another world — with people from the Dark Ages - dominated by clergy, according to Napoleon, who were illiterate, ignorant, and fanatical. He thought that there would be no resistance whatsoever. Napoleon didn’t take the trouble to study the country he was going to invade. He didn’t think the Spanish people had the will to hold on to their independence."
Napoleon could never imagine that some people loved their countries as much as he loved his own. It was a failing, compounded by arrogance and pride, that would bring about his downfall.
On May 2, the Spanish people rose up against the French army in Madrid. By nightfall, 150 French soldiers were dead. The French retaliated, killing thousands of Spaniards. It was the start of a brutal, no-holds-barred war, marked by savagery on both sides. The French tortured and mutilated their prisoners; the Spanish did the same.
Michel Keratraut: "It’s a war of atrocities. It’s guerilla war — the word comes from this time. The French army has never fought this kind of war… It’s not at all the glorious war that they fought elsewhere."
Colonel John Robert Elting: "At this point you begin to see a failure of Napoleon's judgment. He had somehow lost his sense of proportion. He gets into Spain and he won't give up."
Thousands died, but there was no decisive victory. Napoleon would keep his armies in Spain for five years, unable to break the will of the Spanish people.
Jean Tulard: "Napoleon no longer accepts advice. Napoleon only believes in himself. He only has confidence in his star. So, he is going to be blinded."
posted 1/20/2007
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