The One Is Indivisible
The Truth Is The Whole
A sweet man in any conditions, Scott Johnson commends a biography of Napoleon Bonaparte.
I commented:
Five images of The Great Corsican dominate my mind:
1- In the difficult art of war, the moral is to the material as three is to one.
2- He killed numerous horses during a battle, riding them to exhaustion, because he had not radio for comms with his subordinates, insufficient adjutants to relay orders, and a great captain’s determination to see, personally, the enemy he was fighting, and from the front(s).
3- The Napoleonic Code remains the basis of French law, so far as I know, and influences the basic law of other nations on the European Continent and abroad.
4- His battles are studied to this day by military cadets and senior officers in war colleges world-wide.
5- His coup d’œil in battle was and is considered a benchmark of supreme command: generalship.
One Mark1971 replied to my comment:
“and influences the basic law of other nations on the European Continent and abroad”
and the State of Louisiana.
One GeorgeLeS commented:
4- His battles are studied to this day by military cadets and senior officers in war colleges world-wide.
And his orders to his fleets in the campaign leading up to Trafalgar are studied to this day in an effort to try to find SOME reason for what seems an act of suicide.
The most obvious difference between Napoleon and Alexander is the former’s arrogance. And remember, I’m contrasting someone who thought himself a god. But at Tyre, Alexander accepted that he was no master of sea power, and decided to do things his way.
Napoleon, OTOH, insisted he understood the sea better than any admirals – he thought it was all very simple. (Sort of like Obama’s self image.) And he proved himself disastrously wrong. Compared to that, the Russian Campaign looks like a good idea.
I replied to GeorgeLeS:
Your points are supported by A.T. Mahan, though with some additional clarifying detail, such as the condition of the French fleet, its leadership, and way in the background, the French way of conducting affairs, including especially colonial/trade affairs: centralized rather than decentralized. I suspect you have read Mahan. If not, I commend his work.
Larger picture, your points raise a matter of some interest to me of late: that every kind of warfare, in any medium, operates by the needs and purposes of land warfare. Water, for example, is wet land, and air is thin land. Every ship and every plane must land.
Making no claim to knowing Napoleon’s mind, I suspect — that is all, suspect — he grasped intuitively the foregoing point but perhaps insufficiently, and in any case he was hampered at sea by the commanders he had for the task and French-Spanish command environment generally as well as by luck and, arguably, by luck’s master, Almighty God. Fair winds and following seas!
Those who yearn to establish themselves in contemplation of Brahman (Brahma-nishta) must seek solitude, practise meditation and repetition of the name at specified times, and acquire one-pointedness through these spiritual exercises. They must always be anxious to do deeds that will bring about the welfare of all beings. They must always be engaged in performing work without any concern for the fruit thereof. It is only when such people come upon the Earth that all suffering will cease. This is the mark of the Golden Age (Kritha Yuga). If ‘great ones’ and those in authority are thus engaged in the service of humanity and in promoting the welfare of the world, the thieves of passion, hatred, pride, envy, jealousy, and conceit won’t invade the minds of men. The divine possessions of people, like dharma, mercy, truth, love, knowledge, and wisdom, will be safe from harm.
Sathya Sai Baba – Prema Vahini, Chapter 68 / Daily Email, Sai Inspires: Subscription
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