Great military debacles in world history: Is Iraq 2003 the biggest?

[marmar]

Poll question: Great military debacles in world history: Is Iraq 2003 the biggest?

Maybe not yet, but in time perhaps it will be. Which of these (or another not on this list) do you think takes the top (dis)honor?

[Swede]

1. Hitler's Operation Barbarossa is by far the greatest debacle.

Tens of millions of Germans died because he invaded in the fall. How could he have forgotten the Russian winter.

[Generic Other]

2. When Pharoah's Army Got Drownded

Not since then has there been a more ineffectual leader...

:)

[marmar]

3. LOL...

Good point.

[niallmac]

4. I'm thinkin Viet Nam

our adventure into Vietnam and the number of young Americans alone that
it chewed up based on a fake Tonkin Gulf 'incident' was one big mutha
screw up. Before the war started somehow my teenage mind at the time
recalled the warning "Don't get involved in a land war in Asia."
That's the tactical screw up.
Now lets pretend morals and ethics count.
We bombed poor people with B 52's for what?
The Vietnamese never stole apples from my tree.
We lost the war and they now want our tourist dollars.

Maybe from some other perspective Korea or Iraq are worse
screw ups I don't know.

Isn't it about time we asked ourselves why our pursuit of
the American Dream requires so much death?

[TahitiNut]

8. That was a political debacle, not a military debacle.

IMHO

[niallmac]

13. Oh. Right. Well, I enjoyed my little rant anyway.

I recall lots of screw ups in the Civil War but
I am not enough of a scholar to point one out.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[opiate69]

6. "On the verge of running itself"????

:rofl: :rofl:
What. An. Idiot.

[marmar]

7. Enjoying your night out at DU?

Sorry, we don't serve Kool-Aid here.

[Swede]

9. Democracy is spreading like jam on toast.

Please ignore the hundreds of bodies found every day,that's just how democracy works.

[MannyGoldstein]

10. Japan Attacking Pearl Harbor

Incidentally, that was back when we had Dems with intact backbones.

[marmar]

11. Forgot about that one!

:think:

[Mendocino]

12. First World War- Battle of the Somme

Around a million were lost and the trenches hardly moved.

Edit-the British had 58,000 casualties the first day of the battle

[Shipwack]

14. Not as bad as the above, but more recent...

The British invasion of the Falklands/Malvina's - they got complacent and lost two ships, and almost lost their carrier and more to an Argentinian sub that they didn't know was there 'til after hostilities ended.

Bay of Pigs?

I voted for Stalingrad, btw... The current Iraq invasion is more stupid, but I think more people in the German High command actually knew they were making a huge mistake, but they followed orders anyway.

[EarthNeedsHope]

15. I don't know if Stalingrad counts because it probably would've been

inevitable a USSR-Germany war. Iraq was not inevitable, and should have been a very simple occupation but bush screwed that up even (as unjust as it was it should've at least been militarily easy).

[BushOut06]

16. Custer's Last Stand?

I'd say that was a huge blunder.

[135th]

17. I'd have to go with WWI.

I didn't vote for Gallipoli because that wasn't even the worst single disaster of that war. As a whole WWI was undoubtedly histories single biggest military disater for all the main players (except the US, which jumped in towards the end). No less then four empires were destroyed in the process, and over 15 million people were killed in a war with virtually no movement or competent leadership. I find the First World War fascinating for its monotonous brutality. Hundreds of thousands of people would die in battles that would achieve nothing, yet the higher ups only repeated their mistakes over and over again.

Stay the course?