As early as December 2021, the White House released intelligence findings that a possible invasion was looming. Two weeks before Russia’s attack on Ukraine in February, foreign diplomats began pulling out of Kyiv. The world took these as omens of war. (Photo: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)
As Russia blasts its way through Eastern Ukraine via artillery, it is worth remembering that there is a more elegant and efficient way to wage war, and one that often spares life and property, namely, the indirect approach. Consider the Battle of Hattin, for example.
As the fighting in Ukraine shows, wars look clearer in retrospect than they do in real time.
While we might crave information, we are right to be suspicious of the sources that provide it.
History shows that such talks are a way station to the real arena: the battlefield.
“The West is like an old man waking up and discovering, to his surprise, that he still has some youthful vigor left. But it’s not stirring fast enough.”
“Actium and Ukraine both remind us of just how difficult war is.”