Subject:
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Re: Description vs. argument
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Mon, 15 Jan 2001 21:01:08 GMT
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Viewed:
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1286 times
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Christopher Weeks wrote:
> I prefer the one where
> Shaka, using nothing but spears and genius, routed the British army in Zululand
> (South Africa). That's the best defeat, I think. Talk about ragtag.
From what I recall of history, the Zulus led by Shaka were anything but ragtag;
they were an extremely well trained, organised and disciplined army consisting of
men who had been taken into the army as boys and brought up in a military and
spartan fashion, and raised very much under "barrack mentality".
Apparently this was part of the real genius of Shaka, who was one of the few
leaders up until then who realised that the way to win wars is not with ragtag
bands of citizens grouped together temporarily for a cause, but with a long term
long standing professional army.
The interesting thing is that most British people do not have a chip on their
shoulder about this defeat, rather they seem to acknowlege that they were defeated
due to both hubris on their own part and the genius of Shaka. There was a
re-enactment type thing by Zulus of this battle at the recent military tattoo in
Edinburgh, for example.
Jennifer Clark
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Description vs. argument
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| (...) I happen to feel connected to this particular fight since I'm from the US, but it's really not my favorite of these examples. I prefer the one where Shaka, using nothing but spears and genius, routed the British army in Zululand (South (...) (24 years ago, 15-Jan-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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