Biggest Boneheaded Military Hesitations in History

There are many examples of dumb attempts to fight a war that can cost a superior force the victory. While war is a nasty, deadly business, there some major factors to consider, if one has no choice but to fight, an army needs to limit its casualties while simultaneously applying the greatest amount of kinetic force for victory.

To accomplish this, the operation must be quick and disproportionally overwhelming. This does two things. First, it usually guarantees the desired victory, removing the opponent’s ability to use its assets to cause harm to your forces, and can end hostilities in short order. Secondly, and this is overlooked with nauseating regularity by those with little or no military critical thinking. It actually SAVES LIVES on both sides. History has shown that if you have to fight, and there is no other option, do it with everything you have. Long, drawn out conflicts become a meat grinder that kill too many, including civilians, and turn a win into an unhappy victory. World War I was such an example. Britain and France were the winners, but over four years of bloodshed destroyed any fruits of victory, and left the seeds of an even greater conflagration 19 years later.

Here are two examples of ‘not’ applying full force to a conflict, and, in doing so, extended the misery.

Battle of Marathon 490 BCE. Athens versus Persia. Contrary to biased Western history, the Greek expansionism of colonies in Asia Minor was an affront to Persia and King Darius. The Greeks routinely abused the privilege they had been granted by Persia to live along the coast. Raiding Persian cities, not paying the small taxes requested by Persia for the right to settle there, and routine slaughter of civilians, setting Darius on the warpath. Greek communities were in the wrong. History books omit this glaring fact. Athens was the culprit here.

But Persia’s army committed a huge error. Landing troops on the beach below the plane of Marathon, they outnumbered the Athenians. Athens had 10,000 hoplite soldiers, along with 1000 Plataeans. Persian forces numbered 16,000. Establishing the beachhead, Persia did not see any forces from Sparta. They hesitated. The Spartans were being ‘fashionably late’, as usual. The Persians waited. Big mistake. After four days of the two armies staring at each other, Athens attacked, driving Darius’ army back to the ships, both sides suffering an inordinate number of casualties. Had Persia taken advantage on the first day, the war would have been over almost immediately, saving many lives. (A young Greek runner made the famous 26 mile run to Athens with the good news, hence, the custom of the ‘marathon’ events today.)

An example of strategic hesitation costing Persia a victory, and having to fight again ten years later, with even more casualties.

The Battle of Anzio. January 1944. Allied forces were in a stalemate with German divisions across Italy’s Monte Cassino mountain ridge. General Mark Clark, leading U.S. forces, decided to bypass Cassino, and do an end-around, landing at Anzio, just 20 miles from Rome. Do that, and knock Italy out of the war, capturing Rome. Quick action was required. Clark knew that, his subordinate did not. General Lucas, preferred to consolidate the beachhead. Big mistake. Four days later, German forces under Kesselring had the allies surrounded. Lucas hesitated. Result, 7000 American casualties, 36,000 wounded. After four wasted months the allies finally broke out. Strategic hesitation cost un-necessary lives on both sides.

Israel Iran war, present day. If the above two examples, and many like them, are any indication of expected outcomes, I can tell you without any doubt that since October 7^th 2023, Israel has been involved in the biggest game of hesitation in her short 77-year history, and it has cost thousands of Israeli lives, untold economic damage, and horrendous losses of Palestinian, Lebanese, and now Iranian lives and property as well. Israel’s doctrine has always been ‘strike quick’, ‘strike hard’, and get it over with. This time, it has been evident that the previous military doctrines were not in play. Much was forced on Israel by weak American leadership and vicious global pressure based on un-truths and outright hate, but a good deal of the problem was home grown political infighting, enormously unusual extremism previously unknown in Israel’s short history, and military mismanagement from the top down. These are, and have been, deadly combinations, but much more virulent today with the technology of warfare at levels never seen before.

It may be of comfort to Israelis to know that changes have been made in the last eight months that have mitigated the ‘hesitation’ mistakes present over the last year and a half. The military leadership and their doctrines are gone, along with the security chiefs with their ‘whack-a-mole’ thinking. America has awakened from a ‘woke’ slumber that compromised its allies as well as Israel. The Jewish State is back to being pro-active as they used to be, as evidenced by effective doctrine in Gaza, Lebanon, Judea/Samaria, Syria, Yemen, and now Iran. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that there is full support from the U.S. just yet, but it is better than it was. The American president is unpredictable at best, and there is some evidence that bone-headed policy, unlike Elvis, hasn’t quite left the building yet. This may be due to hostile elements in the U.S. Congress, powerful previous administrations, and President Trump’s own compulsive ‘deal making’ obsession. A corrupted academia structure does not help either. In any case, U.S. military help, while effective for Israel, is still subject to the above factors. Iran is ready to crumble, and take the region’s Jihadism with it, but an effective ‘hit hard’ policy to precipitate this, remains to be seen.

As Sun Tzu wrote in ‘The Art of War’ 2500 years ago, when the enemy is down, you don’t let him get back up. Israel, and America, cannot afford to ‘hesitate’ on the battlefield. If we wish to see a vibrant Middle East, free of terrorism (as best we can manage), then we need to avoid history’s boneheaded tactical mistakes. If we have to go to war, make it quick. Don’t hesitate.