April 03, 2008 ... The French Connection.

 

With the entente cordiale now the entente amicable, and a commitment by the French to send 1,000 combat troops to southern Afghanistan, it is worthwhile to briefly examine the nature and outcomes of war under Napoleon Bonaparte in comparison to that of today.

In early 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte led an army weakened by disease, bubonic plague and a lack of supplies, into the Ottoman controlled land of Syria and northern Israel. After defeating the numerically superior Ottoman forces, he led a force of 13,000 to conquer the towns of El Arish, Gaza, Jaffa, and Haifa.

By any standard the conquest of Jaffa was brutal. In spite of a relatively easy win, Napoleon's forces bayoneted to death some 2,000 enemy combatants who were offering their surrender. Then, Jaffa's civilian inhabitants including men, women, and children were looted and murdered for another three days. In addition, 3,000 more enemy combatant prisoners were executed.

Because of the impact of bubonic plague upon the number of his forces, Napoleon was unable to conquer the fortress at Acre. As a consequence, Napoleon chose to pull back to Egypt. In order to maintain the pace in the face of continual Ottoman harassment, he executed prisoners and plague victims, as he and his forces proceeded.

War was a serious enterprise in 1799, in spite of its execution being hampered by such equipment as the ball-and-musket, the bayonet, and horse-drawn artillery.

As of March, 2008, and with the benefit of an impossible for Napoleon to imagine technological advantage, coalition forces in support of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Iraqi forces set out to defeat a murderous and thieving rabble of militia in Basra, led by radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, but were forced within a few days of action, to sue for peace, in Iran.

Under Napoleon Bonaparte's leadership 'a whiff of grapeshot' at the very least would have been brought to bear upon the problem. But Napoleon had the advantage of not having his hands and feet tied behind his back when he had an enemy to subdue. No rules of engagement cards. No proportional response protocols, JAGs or International War Crimes Tribunals for Napoleon to worry about.

Whilst Napoleon's actions were comparatively brutal, they were actually more morally sound than the conduct of today. This is because for our contemporary military sophistication to be of value beyond the ability to turn Basra, for example, into an ashtray before lunchtime, the enemy has to know that confrontation is futile and, as a consequence, will seriously consider choosing a non-aggressive approach to resolving their conflicts. Such technology under the control and guidance of Napoleon Bonaparte would have most probably caused this to happen, simply because the enemy would be fully cognisant of the fact that he would be ruthless enough to use it.

Decades later, Napoleon Bonaparte's Prussian counterpart, Carl von Clausewitz, contended that war is politics by other means. Whilst this may be true enough in a world in which irrational behaviour backed by mixed morals prevails, it has led to the ridiculous state of affairs where our enemies have more rights than the members of our armed services who are dispatched under a covenant of self-sacrifice to confront the enemy, yet must, in too many instances, decline their right to self-defence in the face of enemy action for fear of being in contradiction of a multitude of political agendas, for which they will suffer a multitude of punishments and disgraces.

Even though Napoleon Bonaparte did better war as an adjunct to the politics of his time, he still failed in the end. This was through a combination of bankrupting the nation and being confronted by forces as determined and equally well equipped as he was.

Today, the key nations of the west face bankruptcy in the face of an enemy more determined to win than they are. Perhaps the French can add the necessary will that is missing, but given their lack of success in Cliché sous bois, that may be too optimistic. It's enough to make Napoleon Bonaparte spin in his sarcophagus.