Crumpton’s Picks (6): There Are Lessons for us in Thucydides’s ‘Peloponnesian War’

By Henry A. Crumpton

Best Defense guest columnist

6.

Ground (People) First, Air (Bombs) Second. The ancient Greek historian Thucydides, in The Peloponnesian War, explores the human condition and emphasizes human values as crucial elements on the battlefield. As an example, he teaches the importance of pride, illustrating how the small but defiant Melian state rejected a practical and economically beneficial alliance with a superior Athenian force – embracing certain defeat, to the bewilderment of the victorious Athenians. For the Melians, subjugation and loss of identity was worse than death.

U.S. politicians and military commanders often measure quantitative success and celebrate technology in war, which may reduce immediate risk but undermine more important, more elemental, more human aspects of war. As an example, except for the disruption of specific enemy attacks and the force protection imperative, we should bomb the enemy to advance the objectives of allies on the ground. Airpower should not diminish or displace, but rather enhance the courage, pride, prestige, and honor garnered by local allies winning victories. The visceral needs of allied warriors are paramount.

 Ambassador Henry A. Crumpton, who led the CIA’s Afghanistan campaign 2001-02, retired from government service in 2007. He is the author of The Art of Intelligence.

(To be continued)

Image credit: British Museum/Wikimedia Commons