172
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2026
172 points (100.0% liked)
Chapotraphouse
14427 readers
613 users here now
Banned? DM Wmill to appeal.
No anti-nautilism posts. See: Eco-fascism Primer
Slop posts go in c/slop. Don't post low-hanging fruit here.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
It's funny that Clausewitz became *the war guy' when his career consists of the Rhine campaign (Had to be bailed out by the Austrians), the war of the fourth coalition (loss), working a background role as the Prussian army was reformed along Napoleonic line, defecting to Russia and participated in one battle that he lost, going home to Prussia to negotiate Prussia betraying their alliance with France so he could participate in the battle of Ligny (loss) and the battle of Wavre (loss) at which point he retired from combat.
He was involved in a battle that resulted in the occupation of a major European capital 2 times on the losing side.
TBH, he never commanded himself, just was a staff officer, and wrote a book drawing from his experiences on the dumb shit that resulted in defeats.
Those who can't, teach
He spent most of his time as a teacher on sick leave because he was shitting out his doo doo ass, and most of the work on the thing he's most known for ("On War") was done by his wife while she was also busy having two other jobs. Incidentally she also got him his promotion to colonel and his teaching job.
The man was hard carried through life by his wife.
I was about to say "well, at least he had the ability to self-reflect and write about why he lost and all the fuckups he made" and then you reveal that it was all his wife lmao
I'm not saying he didn't do anything for his magnum opus. That would be unfair. But his wife finished his magnum opus after he died leaving a bunch of unfinished manusccripts and a bunch of notes and got the result published.
For all of his faults, it seems he was a good husband. And sometimes, that is all that counts.
He clearly has a lot of experience losing, so he knows what's the opposite