I found his speech to be fascinating. I think you will agree
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Menu There is no diplomatic solutionIsrael should declare three nos;
no to nuclear Iran, no to two-state solution, no to bi-national state
no to nuclear Iran, no to two-state solution, no to bi-national state
Yes. Fascinating. A wealth of information. I learned a lot. One thing in the beginning: The assumptions leading to over-confidence as the basis for self-destructive hubris that he attributes to great powers flush with earlier victories reminds me of a similar basis for the self-destructive third-worldist policies of liberal elites including with Jews vis a vis the Pals.
I received this comment:
Macgreggor provided a great deal of information, from which a listener might extract one or two useful points — much like many lectures I slogged through in the university.
The one point that stuck with me, he said at the very beginning of the lecture: “Victory makes the victor stupid”. This is partially true: The best example I’ve ever read of this, was the difficulty of the Israelites in capturing Ai after a resounding victory at Jericho. Macgreggor’s examples were more complicated and diffuse.
For instance, “Did the British lose WWI, because they over-confidently took on the Germans and were initially overwhelmed?” Actually, it’s the history of British warfare to initially get pushed back, only to rally over time and ultimately humble their enemies. The actual victor in WWI was the United States, which was neither stupid nor smart; they simply had escaped the years of ruin that both the Germans and the British had endured.
The only other point I came away with as a “keeper” was one the speaker didn’t touch upon until virtually the very end — and that, in response to a question: that we are probably unprepared financially, for a protracted war. Earlier, he correctly pointed out that what is probably more needed now than anything, is a review of our military’s overall objectives, structure and spending priorities — which we haven’t thoroughly done since the 1950s.
Why haven’t we done this yet? Because of too many victories? Macgreggor did say that a disastrous failure is generally needed, to provoke real changes; but that isn’t all that’s needed. Sometimes, we just get stupid for no obvious reason.
Many profound truths are detailed and explained in this 2017 speech, and the followup Q&A is equally revealing. Among other things, McGreggor explains where we are, how we arrive here, and what the the consequences of ignoring our current position might be.