Reflective Essay: The Western Way Of War

Writing this paper on the western ways of war allowed me to study a period of history of which I was very unfamiliar. At the basic level, I learned about important components of warfare that remain rooted in our modern doctrine. In particular, I appreciated the priority and emphasis Napoleon placed on drill as a means to develop cohesion, esprit de corps, and subconscious response to orders or enemy action. While marching around on a parade field may not represent the modern understanding of drill, units could benefit from repetition of combat related tasks, under stress. If this is truly a western way of war, we should reinvigorate this aspect of the model, which would also include repetitively drilling the commander’s staff to prepare orders, staff estimates, and react to contingencies to develop critical thinking skills.
One takeaway …show more content…
In almost every instance the dominant military power, whether it was the French, Prussians, Union Army, or the Imperial German Army, had possession of either instruments or tactics of war they failed to exploit. As Colonel Henderson recognized fighting in the Anglo-Boer War (South Africa), “modern Armies stubbornly refuse to admit that invisible men with flat trajectory rifles” had changed the face of modern combat. No longer, were armies working to achieve annihilation, or attrition as a way to achieve decisive victory; now capitulation could also achieve strategic political ends. Parker made an insightful argument, when he wrote that the South never had to decisively defeat the North; rather; all they had to do was thwart Northern military efforts. Even though hard fought lessons learned from years of fighting Natives across the American plains provided the opportunity to administer the kind of warfare required to achieve Northern capitulation, Lee opted instead for close order battle on a massive

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