The whole point of free speech is not to make ideas exempt from criticism but to expose them to it.

Monday, July 9, 2012

This is a joke, right?

The RC Journal headline reads: Guard soldiers study Little Bighorn Battlefield

The story includes this gem:  "...studying military history teaches junior military leaders to think in terms of terrain and tactics."

Prior to travelling to the site of Custer's last pants-crapping, we presume that none of the officer candidates from Ft. Meade knew the following:
1. A wise officer listens to his scouts, who are paid to inform him that there are more enemy over the next hill than have ever gathered in one place.
2. A wise officer hesitates before committing his soldiers and himself to a battle in which they are outnumbered by more than 20-to-one.
3. A wise officer determines the advisability of sending two-thirds of his detachment to picnic in the trees while he leads the remaining one-third into battle against the enemy which now outnumbers him by about 60-to-one.
4. A wise officer considers the fact that half the enemy is armed with repeating arms while his force is armed with single-shot weapons that often jam when heated up because the army has bought ammo from suppliers who made the cartridge cases from rusty cans.
Not that I think it was a bad idea to provide that information to the prospective second-looies who vacationed at Garryowen on July 4.

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