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STRATEGY_OF_ALEXANDER

                                              December 19, 2006


  Think about the strategy of
  Alexander the Great for             To the extent
  a moment.  How was he able          that he had
  to get as far as he did?            any strategy.

     Look at it from the                 H.G. Wells dismissed
     point of view of a                  him as "a tourist with
     city besieged.                      an army".

     Alexander and his boys
     are at the gates.

     They're bad asses:                            GEODESIC_DOOM
     If you fight them,
     you'll lose, and                    These are my impressions
     they're merciless                   picked up from reading
     with the losers.                    the Mary Renault novels.

        On the other hand,                   Nothing but the best
        if you just "give                    source material for me.
        up" and open the
        gates, you'll be                        Prime, if not primary.
        treated as a friend...
                                                   OUT_OF_THE_DUMPSTER
        You have a big party
        with the Great Alexander,
        and he'll pack up in a
        few days and move on --
        without making any
        changes.

           He leaves the existing
           rulers in charge, and
           does not require any
           religious conversion.

              Yeah, you've got to
              swear allegiance to
              Alexander, and I
              imagine your old boss
              may get a bit testy           (And not to be too
              about that, but the           cynical -- but obviously
              old boss is far away.         one can always convert
                                            back later if need be.)
              And after all it looks
              like this Alexander guy
              is on a roll: it could
              be your old boss is
              going to have Alexander
              problems of his own                  It seems to me that this
              shortly.                             is the real formula for
                                                   conquest: don't conquer.

                                                      Compare to the Roman
   So: Alexander conquered                            Empire, with it's
   as much with his reputation                        reputation for making
   as he did with force of arms.                      citizens of it's new
                                                      subjects.
   You might say that he
   had a reputation for
   being "tough but fair".

      The United States,
      seems to have
      problems with the
      "but fair" part.

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