Alexander the Great

[Marina]

I was watching a prorgramme on National Geographic about the Military leader Alexander the Great.
Apparently it was said that he was the greatest military leader and intelligent tactician and even today his military tactics are studied at military schools all over the world, and the American and British military have adopted some of his tactics in certain wars.

Is this true ?? How do you all rate hime generally from a military point of view ?

Its a bit of thorny issue with my Middle Eastern lot, they reckon he was a vain, bloodthirtsy murderer !! They are boycotting the film because of the way the Persians are portrayed !!
Honestly... its only a film !!

[Whitey]

Yeah because of that bastard we have to shave, really no joke. Alexander used to circle his enemies and move in on them from all directions. I can't see any army doing that since the invention of firearms. He was sort of gay they say and we have alot of gays in our military in the USA, so yeah I guess that is another thing to add to shaving. He drank alot, so do we. He inspected his troops before battle, we do that.
Robert E. Lee was the best tactician of all time though. True he lost his war, but he drug it out for 4 years what any other general would have surrendered in 3 months. He took a rag tag, lone army of farmers and nearly at several points took the industrial, well supplied and well fed Union nearly to its knees.

[harry hackedoff]

And Robert E Lee had better songs written about him
Name one song written about Alexander
As the great Cher has spake,"Tubal Kaine is ma name, and I fought under Robert E Lee" #
Bet she did, too.


#The night they drove Old Dixie down.

[Whitey]

Ever hear the song called Song of the South? Seems like it was written about my family.
I remember the military saying we had to shave because of Alexander. He made his men shave so the enemy couldn't grab their beards.
Good thing we beat Alexander in WW2 or we might have been forced into being bimetrosexuals like him as well.
Wasn't it WW2?

[GD]

Shaving was in fact not compulsory in the British Army until after the Crimean War and it was introduced as a matter of hygiene. A beard can become infested and you can become debilitated by the bites of the infestors. There are circumstances when beards are allowed i.e. when water is short etc.

Ain't knowledge a wonderful thing?

[Sticky Blue]

And of course the reverse is true. Shaving can be a problem... on cut in the jungle and there can be a serious infrction within a few hours!

[JR]

Shaving a problem?,Sticks you been spying again!.Aye jr

[Sticky Blue]

Looks like my urban camoflage is working JR!






And for those rural moments...

[GD]

And of course the reverse is true. Shaving can be a problem... on cut in the jungle and there can be a serious infrction within a few hours!

As I said in my post above: "There are circumstances when beards are allowed i.e. when water is short etc. "

There are also appointments within the army i.e pioneer sgt/farrier where beards are compulsory - I hasten to add, not in all regiments. (before some other smartarse tries to correct me)

[Tab]

His victories were great, but no one seems to talk about his return from India when most of his troops died from thirst or disease. Like most of the worlds leaders you can only talk about there successes and not their failures

[GD]

Same as Napoleon. He pushed his luck and it backfired on him.

[longrifle]

Robert E. Lee was the best tactician of all time though. True he lost his war, but he drug it out for 4 years what any other general would have surrendered in 3 months. He took a rag tag, lone army of farmers and nearly at several points took the industrial, well supplied and well fed Union nearly to its knees.

I'm going out on a limb here because I'm getting ready to repeat something that I haven't researched very well. There is a school of thought that says Lee was overrated, not incompetent mind you, just overrated. Many also consider Jackson underrated. The same thing holds true with some of the cavalrymen, JEB Stuart overrated and Wade Hampton underrated. Maybe I'm wrong, I admitt I'm not prepared to articulate reasons, but some historians have proposed this.

[HUMINT]

I know that Alexander used highly drilled regiments of men, instead of a mass free for all. Similar to a Phalanx, these groups of men pushed forwards in tight squares with their massively long pikes (a Sariss) allowing many ranks of men to fight at once. This allowed Alexander’s outnumbered army to effectively have more ‘weapons’ on the actual front line of the fight, and outnumber the attackers.

There is probably something modern Generals have learnt from Alexander, but I doubt it’s using 12 feet long bayonets.

[Scooby]

Alexander the Great was "Great" - Julius Caesar apparently wept at the thought of Alexander's accomplishments all at the age of just 32, by contrast Caesar did not get into action until late, but he did quite well

The phalanx was the standard introduced to the Macedonian army by Phillip of Macedonia (Alexander's father) and the Macedonian army which Alexander made use of was first professional army in the World.

If it was not for the Greek penchant for fighting each other then Europe would probably belong to Greece and the Romans would not have beaten them.

I think the homosexuality leanings given to the Ancient Greeks derives from Rome as a means to further denigrate the Greeks, they did similar to the Britons and Gauls. You got to ask yourself, how rife is homosexuality in Greece compared to the USA and UK, then you might figure that on the whole the Greeks prefer their women!

[Wholley]

Bored then..Are we?
Or are you a closet Greek