04-24-2007, 09:36 PM
Quote:[
The American Civil War was not of Robert E. Lee's choosing.
I never said it was.
Quote: He was pretty well forced by circumstance to make the best of what he had, and he did very well. He acted and made decisions according to the interest of his country.
That is very different than starting a war, for *no* reason other than to make a name for yourself or supposedly to avenge your father's wounded pride, when you have no reason to expect victory. Carthage wanted nothing to do with this war because they didn't feel they were ready. This was not Hannibal's concern. Hannibal feared growing old and dying in obscurity before the war would start naturally, so he jumped the gun squarely against the interest of Carthage.
I have already proposed an alternative view of the above, which you have not addressed. Why should I accept this Romanist view, rather than the pro-Hannibal one? Again, where I have cited similarities between Lee and Hannibal, you have not addressed these, but looked at ways in which they were different. It was not my intention to try to prove they were exactly the same and this is apparent in what I wrote. I was comparing them as generals, not in terms of their moral rectitude, or lack thereof. Nonetheless, I see no conclusive evidence that Hannibal was in any way Lee's moral inferior. You appear to think so, but argue purely by assertion.
Quote:Everyone was rightly shocked by his initial success, but the end result was *entirely* predictable.
Now which one do you mean? :twisted: The statement could be applied to either but it is false because, just as Lee appeared to have a chance of victory snatched from him by a lack of support at a crucial time, so also is there evidence that Hannibal might have achieved far more had he received men and supplies in good time. Though the Carthaginians appear to have been against the war at the outset, they refused to give Hannibal up and supported his war by their attitude to Roman demands that he be reined in. Clearly, their enthusiasm was aroused, but they failed to act quickly enough on their declared intention to back Hannibal.
When you think about it, few things in this universe are entirely predictable, perhaps least of all in war.
