Syria under Bashir Assad (closed end 2014)

[Madhu]

The Centurions review:

M. Larteguy's argument, revolutionary though it is meant to sound, is a familiar one. If anything, that is its strength: The Centurions is a call for a radical defense of the old values. The Communists have remembered what we have forgotten; if we rededicate ourselves to the ideals of strength, independence, self-reliance, we can destroy them and thereby save ourselves. Indeed, we will have saved ourselves by the rededication itself.

Larteguy is probably right on military grounds. The day of Napoleonic Grande Armee has passed; the French experiences discussed in The Centurions prove it, and the United States is learning the same thing today in Viet-Nam.

But his contention that a revolutionized Army is the key to a new Revolutionary France is wide of the mark. Sartre's contrary theory of involution--that the desperation and violence of the Army is corrupting whatever survives of a healthy France--is, I think, more accurate. Perhaps Larteguy is just when he blames domestic decadence for the impotence of the Army in the colonies; but he does not convince me that it can and must therefore save France.

In fairness, I should say that I doubt anybody could sell me on such a theory. But if anyone could, it certainly wouldn't be Larteguy. The problem, as I suggested above, is that The Centurions is a very bad novel. Larteguy has allowed his venomous feelings towards France and his intoxication with the military to overwhelm his book.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/19...-army-needs-a/

No, this is not a thread jack, promise

Aw, maybe it is. I seem to have this stuff on the brain. That review is weird, though. Seriously, male military fantasy. Don't get mad, okay? You all know I'm on your side.

PS: To pull this all together, it seems to me that a bunch of people romanticized guerrilla warfare and colonialism and certain novels and memoirs and somehow, doctrine incredibly followed this romantic, unsupported view of how to fight based on a bunch of idealized notions that weren't really what happened. That Americans with their own history could do that! I guess if the people are brown, the Constitution and our foundational values go out the window.

Now you can all yell at me and tell me what I've got wrong!

[carl]

The Centurions review:



http://www.thecrimson.com/article/19...-army-needs-a/

No, this is not a thread jack, promise

Aw, maybe it is. I seem to have this stuff on the brain. That review is weird, though. Seriously, male military fantasy. Don't get mad, okay? You all know I'm on your side.

PS: To pull this all together, it seems to me that a bunch of people romanticized guerrilla warfare and colonialism and certain novels and memoirs and somehow, doctrine incredibly followed this romantic, unsupported view of how to fight based on a bunch of idealized notions that weren't really what happened. That Americans with their own history could do that! I guess if the people are brown, the Constitution and our foundational values go out the window.

Now you can all yell at me and tell me what I've got wrong!

It's a novel and if I recall right, it reflects the ideas of a certain group of French officers who were really impressed by their captivity at the hands of the Commies. They actually believed that if they go the propaganda right everything would fall into place. It didn't but they had some influence for a while. The Constitution goes out the window in many wars including ours. It has to. Check out the fate of Vallandigham.