Quote Originally Posted by Fuchs View Post
In the end, the leader can claim that his mission was impossible because the men were not capable enough.
Very astute comment that gets at the human nature core of the thing. In one of the threads on the Council, the one about soldier's load and body armor and such, if you go back to the early postings, there are numerous comments reflecting exactly that attitude. Many comments to the effect that people need to work out more, try harder etc., ie-blaming the men.

Too bad we don't still have cavalry and horse mounted infantry. If a cavalry unit exhausted its horses on an approach march to the extent they couldn't do anything but pant upon arrival, no officer could get away with saying it was the horse's fault. They would just be fired for not knowing the condition of and abusing the animals. If they overloaded the animals the load would be lightened, no excuses. They get away with it with men now though. If there were still animal units around at least somebody could point to the mule train and say "You don't expect it from them!"