Lions Led by Donkeys

Another WWI expression, that America is *shackled to a corpse*, would also have been acceptable considering the uselessness of US leadership.

Tangentially related; there is a very very good podcast by this name that talks about military history with a comedy/progressive view hosted by a writer with a degree in genocide studies. Highly recommended.

Eliot A. Cohen: “The trope that the British soldiers of World War I were ‘lions led by donkeys’ is somewhat unfair. But the phrase can and should be applied to the current Iran war, at least insofar as the United States is concerned. The U.S. is waging a struggle against an unquestionably malign enemy, using a military that is highly competent but in some respects under-equipped, and with the worst wartime political leadership America has ever had. “Admittedly, some of the criticism of America’s leadership is wide of the mark. The notion that it has no objectives, or that those objectives are unclearly articulated, is exaggerated, because the depressing truth is that in wartime, objectives are usually muddled, occasionally implicit, and always changing. … “Some of the Trump administration’s goals are clear enough—destroying or severely damaging Iran’s navy, its military industries, its missile- and drone-launching capability, and its residual nuclear program. Others, such as overthrowing the leadership of the Islamic Republic, are aspirational. Still others, including reopening the Strait of Hormuz in the face of Iranian threats to mine it, may be emerging—or not, depending on President Trump’s mood. “In and of themselves, these uncertainties and changes are more or less normal aspects of wartime leadership. What is not normal, and what is stunningly incompetent, is just about every other facet of the administration’s conduct of the war. It is impossible to excuse the failure to explain the war to the American people, aside from a presentation by the president in his summer home while he wore an unserious white baseball cap. Or the failure to bring Congress into wartime decision making, or at least secure its approval for the war. Or the failure to bring allies along with a minimum of surprises and a maximum of persuasion to support the war. “But the egregious failures do not end there. The best wartime political leaders attempt to minimize internal friction and feuds. Not Trump, who, in the midst of a war with a state sponsor of terrorism, has persisted in picking fights over the funding of the Department of Homeland Security. He has likewise made doomed attempts to revoke birthright citizenship and to meddle in states’ election administration, moves that seem almost calculated to enhance internal divisions. The very notion of national unity in a time of war seems utterly beyond this president, who follows his capricious instincts and continues, as ever, to spray venom at domestic opponents (and, for that matter, allies) when they are needed to wage and win the war.” Read more: [https://theatln.tc/4Cq0s51v](https://theatln.tc/4Cq0s51v)