The Charge of the Light Brigade is the title of a poem and the phrase is synonymous with official blundering that kills good men. Although most people know this, they do not know the poem itself or the history behind it. This is relevant as today people are once more talking about war with Russia over Crimea and Ukraine as Crimea is exactly where the charge and the Battle of Balaclava took place when earlier generations tried to strip Russia of their influence and dominance over this region.
Welcome Freedom Troopers, the Charge of the Light Brigade is a poem by Lord Alfred Tennyson commemorating the charge of the valiant Light Brigade of Cavalry at Balaclava in the Crimean War of the 1850s. American Civil War General and veritable creator of the Union Army of the Potomac, George Brinton McClellan was sent as an observer with the French, English, and Ottoman forces against the Russians trying to take Crimea from the Russian Czar. Although history has not treated him kindly he had the most strategic approach to utilizing the Union Army of the Potomac. Unfortunately, he was not aggressive enough for Lincoln and when he saw the slaughter of men and horses on the Peninsula during the War Between the States he was heard to exclaim, “No victory is worth this.” Some historians have said that he loved the army so much he wasn’t willing to risk its destruction in battle. That may be true. But it doesn’t mean he was stupid or didn’t have a strategic mind. As for the Ukraine, the US State Department should have known, anytime anyone has tried to take Crimea from Russia it has led to war – maybe blundering into War in Ukraine was a modern Charge of the Light Brigade only instead of Lord Raglan and Lord Cardigan the instigators of the fiasco were Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland, the US State Department, and the CIA. Politifact quotes that: Obama “spends $5 billion paying Ukrainians to riot and dismantle their democratically elected government.” And then reports the State Department denies this – without providing any information or evidence in support of their assertion of innocence. Yet it was US funded NGOs that destabilized the legitimate Ukrainian Government and brought War to Russia and Ukraine. If this was not intentional it is one of the biggest blunders in history, for which Victoria Nuland was awarded a position as President of the Center for New American Security.
Russia allowed the Ukraine to separate on condition that they rented the port facilities of Sevastapol to the Russian Fleet and assuming that Ukraine would maintain its historic ties to Russia (on 13 May 1783 when the first 11 ships of the Russian Imperial Fleet entered the port facilities of Sevastapol which they began work on in 1772 and finally finished in 1783 and maintained almost continually since,) – so this is by no means a fleeting relationship. It fell after being defended for 349 days it fell in the Crimean War to the combined allied forces of France, Britain, the Ottoman Empire, and Piemont-Sardinia. Later, 1918 the Imperial German Army occupied Sevastapol and only after a 250-day seige in 1942-1943 did it fall to the German Army. How would the Russians ever abandon a port for which they have spent so much blood and treasure. How stupid, and ignorant of history, is the US State Department? Russian History and geo-politics is not even my primary area of study and it is obvious to me.
Most people have heard of the Charge of the Light Brigade but they neither know the history of the Crimean War of 1853 to 1856 in which it occurred, nor even the poem whose title is The Charge of the Light Brigade. Let’s look at it and its implications for us today as we explore what happens when the lives of brave men are wasted by incompetent leaders and imperial foreign policy.
Almost half of the Ukraine’s population is Russian and speaks Russian instead of Ukrainian. Zelinsky’s regime, among other things, allowed anti-Russian militias to attack Russians citizens of the Ukraine and removed Russian from being spoken in government and schools. Actions that the democratically elected leaders of Ukraine wouldn’t do. So, through billions of dollars funneled through NGO’s (Non-Government Organizations,) organized by George Soros and the US to depose the elected government in a coup and move against the Russian population of Ukraine. But that is a discussion for next week (until then see my article here: Aggression and Why is There War in Ukraine? – SabersEdge – Cutting Through the Lies to Get to the Truth].
You will see that to renege on their contract to allow the Russian Fleet to continue to use the Port Facilities of Sevastopol (in Crimea which was in Ukraine after they seceded), facilities that the Soviet Union spent millions developing (and maintaining since at least 1772), as well as to persecute the large Russian population in Ukraine by removing the Russian Language as one of legitimate languages of Ukraine were actions that democratically elected governments didn’t want to do. It is unlikely any politician could be legitimately elected without appealing to the sizeable Russian population in Ukraine. I have already partially explained at the link above and I will show how destructive this was but will continue when I give a detailed analysis of the Putin/Tucker interview next week.
In the last 300 years Russia has gone to war to keep control of Crimea over 40 times and only the fools of the US State Department could think they could manuever the Russian Fleet peacefully out of their only Deep-Water Port in the Black Sea. Unless it was their intention to start a war – which as things have developed does seem likely. It was President (and General who led the allies to victory in World War II,) who said there is a real danger that the military industrial complex would come to run this country. Surprise! We’re here! It needs to be fed so we spend billions on military aid to Ukraine and give them money to buy even more of our stuff as they are the ones dying in the fields and trenches of Ukraine.
I find it hard to believe that we would possess such a high level of incompetence in implementing American foreign policy without someone making the obvious consequences known. But perhaps I give our government too much credit as once again Europe (and America,) is toying with war in the Ukraine. As with when Britain and France supported the Ottoman Turks in the Crimean War – Wikipedia (the one from October 1853 to February 1865 not the Russo-Turkish War from 1768 to 1774 or the Russo-Turkish War (1676–1681) – Wikipedia.) tried to wrest control of Crimea and the Black Sea from Russia and France and England backed them with their army leading, in part, to the Battle of Balaclava – Wikipedia and the The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred, Lord… | Poetry Foundation for the poem and Charge of the Light Brigade – Wikipedia for the history.
Russia will never give up its deep-water access to the high seas from their strategic deployment in Sevastapol, Leningrad/St. Petersburg, and Vladivostok. Every time anyone has tried to take one of these Russia has fought tooth and nail to keep them, as they fought against the allies and the Light Brigade and are fighting again now against Ukraine, and NATO. When I pointed this out on facebook, another of those posts they removed – along with all my research – a professor once posted “You can’t say something is going to happen again just because it happened in history.” To which I responded, “Russia has gone to war over 40 times in the last few hundred years to maintain control over Deep Water access to the Black Sea/Sevastapol. If you want to argue that this time would be different you need to explain what has changed in Russian geopolitical strategy that now indicates that they know longer view access to the Black Sea as important. What has changed about Russian strategy in this regard? The answer is nothing. Sevastapol is vital to their influence in the entire Middle East as their only deep-water port on the Black Sea. But to continue their influence in the Middle East they have to maintain their fleet access to Sevastapol in Crimea. (For more about the Russian Naval Base in Sevastapol see: Sevastopol Naval Base – Wikipedia.)
Therefore, any attempt to deny them this access would, as it has dozens of times in the past, led to war. There is no comparable analogy for the US because we have several deep-water ports for our fleets in the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Gulf of Mexico. Russia has only three reliable major deep-water ports for their fleet, Sevastapol in Crimea for the Black Sea and access to the Mediterranean, Vladivostok for the Pacific, and Leningrad/St. Petersburg for access to the Baltic Sea and the Atlantic. While someone can argue that Murmansk should be included on the Port on the North Sea it is unreliable due to ice conditions and is difficult to maintain and support.” Even so, Russia made attempts to diversify and peacefully support Crimea through the bridge over the Gulf of Azor after they occupied the Crimea this might have worked but the Ukraine blew it up (at our urging.)
I performed my middle son’s wedding, but as always between the church and the reception I wore my cavalry Stetson which had the 8th Cavalry crest on it. A young man came up to me and said “You were in the 8th Cavalry?” I said “Yes, 3/8 cav.” He smiled and said, “3/8 Cav, 5/8ths BS?” I laughed and nodded. “I guess my squadron was better I was 5/8 Cav. So we were 5/8ths Cav and only 3/8ths BS,” he said. Cavalry is a relatively small branch comparatively, but they are a tight-knit group, and you tend to run into the same people over and over as you move about the army. BS is part of any Government operation and it is up to the good men and women who strive to serve their country to try to make it good.
The soldiers of the Light Brigade understood the BS that goes with military orders – misuse by arm-chair generals and politicians of brave and faithful soldiers is as timeless as governments and leaders themselves. But the Light Brigade valiantly followed what they thought were their orders and the creme of manhood that were called the Light Brigade died in the charge. A Brigade of just over 600 men and horses 475 of the horses died or had to be put down due to injury (table of human loss was taken from Wikipedia article and is used for educational purposes.)
The Charge of the Light Brigade is a famous poem about a real battle. It shows some of the BS that cavalry can encounter when mishandled by incompetent commanders, and arrogant narcissists. Cavalry can be misused by arrogant narcissists. The United States government can likewise be misused and corrupted by arrogant narcissists. Unfortunately, narcissists and psychopaths always seek positions of power. It is possible that it was people of such warped caliber that are responsible for the ilicit manuevers of the CIA and State Department in Ukraine. It is not a new idea that such people seek power through governments and that after many decades they will become dominant in government. After all, Jefferson and the founding fathers warned us.
Charge of the Light Brigade, a historical blunder and misdirection of the finest cavalry in the world can be seen as a metaphor for the misdirection of the US Government as elements arrogantly lead it “into the valley of death.” If you are not familiar with the Charge of the Light Brigade (beyond the phrase itself,) I hope you find the dramatizations and documentaries below interesting. If you watch them, you will get an idea of the blunder of a greater disaster than Custer’s loss of 210 men at the Little Big Horn.
The Charge of the Light Brigade – 600 of the finest cavalry of their time – in the Crimean War of 1853-1856 was one of the biggest cavalry blunders in history – 475 horses were killed or had to be put down – over 300 died in the valley charge itself. Yet the Light Brigade made the charge in the finest tradition of the cavalry. Impossibly, they reached the Russian batteries at the end of a mile long charge, routed thousands of Russian cavalry and then, on their return, charged into a force of Russian lancers that were trying to cut off their retreat. As the poem says. “Boldly, the rode and well.”
This is an example of incompetence wasting the bravery, courage, and training of some of the finest troopers in history. I include two videos from two different movies and the History Chap who has a good explanation of the charge. If you know nothing of the Battle of Balaclava watch the History Chap first. Lord Lucan never should have been a cavalry commander. Out of the Box thinking is essential for good cavalry operations and he couldn’t do it. This is a good example of what “I was just following orders,” can lead to. (Only a historically ignorant fool, or the US State Department, would think that Russia would give up their port in Sevastapol, Crimea without a fight, the US machinations against Russia caused the current war in the Ukraine as I will demonstrate in the explanation of the Tucker Interview with Putin – coming soon.) “C’est Magnifique!”
If you watch the entirety of the last video please note that around the twenty minute mark the narrator quotes Florence Nightingale saying that in four miles of beds, each only 18 inches apart, she walked down the corridor and heard not one complaint, not one groan of pain in a group that scarcely claimed six limbs between any two men. The stoicism and discipline of these soldiers is indicative of what men used to be and what they can be again. Of course, they were soldiers. But discipline is something that ultimately comes from within. It is something we need to claim for ourselves. I recommend reading Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, and Epictetus as part of a quest for true masculinity. True men are the defenders of their family and civilization. Not the sick, lost civilization purported by modern society but true civilization that the West has been the guardians of since the fall of Greece and Rome. Somewhere we lost it until today we do not know how to be men or even what a woman is.
The Battle of Balaclava where the light Brigade made their charge does not exist in a vacuum. It was part of the invasion of Crimea, another attempt by Britain and France to take Crimea and the deep-water port of Sevastapol from Russia (see above for importance of Sevastapol). Trying to separate Russia from Sevastapol has always led to war. This is clear in history so you either have to consider our CIA and State Department as completely incompetent or they actually were trying to provoke war with Russia. The evidence we will see next week will verify this observation.
Such imperial manuevering has always led to war and people dying. Below is a historical summary worth watching, it is long but thorough and gives a look at the hospitals and observations of Florence Nightingale (a nurse who you may also have heard of,) during and after the battle. It gives a good idea of what the whole campaign was like. A campaign marked by administrative incompetence and unnecessary death – much like the withdrawal from Afghanistan or sending our troops to Iraq without armored Humvees, or the chaos of Viet Nam. Literally about Iraq, I heard Donald Rumsfeld say things that sounded almost verbatim statements made by the Secretary of War Robert McNamara during the Viet Nam war. Both thought that the enemy would collapse solely because of our technology through Shock and Awe.
You can watch the movie about the Charge of the Light Brigade on Paramount+ (but it may be elsewhere since it was an old and popular movie. Clips from both the old black and white movie and later the color version are included below:
The Charge of the Light Brigade was a valiant charge that was made in the wrong valley due to the incompetence of leaders and the confusing orders they gave. The charge was made in the Crimean War and was at the Battle of Balaclava. But as so often happens the blood of the brave was wasted due to the blunders of leaders who didn’t have to pay the consequences for their actions. It is a problem that soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq probably know well because the problem was not unique to this one charge. You can see a modern fiasco in the valiant defense of a completely undefendable position in Afghanistan – probably because it looked like an important spot on a map and was placed there by an officer who never had to actually man and defend the post. This movie is called the Outpost and can be found on many streaming services, (Spoiler Alert: at the very end they are saved by attack helicopters of the Air Cavalry.) Another modern example of brave soldiers of the US Cavalry running the gauntlet in a nearly unwinnable situation you can also watch We Were Soldiers which is about the Battle of la Drang in the Viet Nam War where Mel Gibson plays one of the most honored Cavalrymen of modern times Colonel (later Lieutenant-General,) Hal Moore and the reporter Joseph L. Calloway.
Videos below talk about the history. The first focuses more on the charge, and military factors while a more detailed discussion (especially outlining the human cost,) is the last videos: The True Story Behind the Charge of the Light Brigade. They are worth watching/listening to but the first has better maps and explanation of the military blunder itself.
As you watch consider this, the debacle called the Charge of the Light Brigade was caused by officers who were drawn from the elite of society. They had the status and were put in charge but they were midwits who (although they had the credentials,) did not have the moral courage to lead men in a crisis. Today we are led by politicians, leaders, and experts who too often have checked the boxes of status (attended Yale, Harvard or whatever,) who don’t have the ability to lead our country. They are cowards who don’t have standards or morals and they stand for nothing. If you stand for nothing except preserving your own position and status whatever you lead, no matter their abilities, training, or equipment, they will fail. The failure of leadership is epidemic today. We lack real leaders. Ins tead, like the Light Brigade we have managers who commanded from their chair on a hill or, as Lord Cardigan, commanded his cavalry from a yacht off shore. Leaders who refuse to lead or don’t have the will or character to lead by example are everywhere today. It may take everything to collapse into chaos from mismanagement for true leaders to emerge. We will see. If they do arise, in their own way, they will “Ride to the Sound of the Guns” and they will make a difference.