"Over By Christmas": Campaigning, Delusions and Force Requirements

The US Army Professional Writing Collection ^ | J. B. A. Bailey

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Introduction: Campaigning and the Shapes of Time

There is a natural inclination to look back with the benefit of hindsight to find fresh patterns in history. Thus, for example, the period 1870-1990 can be viewed as Europe's "Hundred- Year Civil War," a perception not necessarily obvious to those engaged in that "war" at any particular time; and the Japanese have seen the Second World War from their viewpoint as variously a part of a "Hundred Years War,"1 a "Seventy-Five Year War," a "Great Pacific War" and a "Great East Asian War." More recent operations against Islamic extremists have been seen by some on both sides in an even broader context, as further iterations of a war spanning more than one thousand years and stretching from Tours to Acre, Lepanto, Khartoum, and now to New York and Bali.

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Lengthy Professional Reading