Stupid Wars

Ed Strosser and Michael Prince are co-authors of this nice book that seems to have been written to tell the unknown stories behind the most stupid wars happened in the history of the world; actually the book is “A citizen’s guide to botched putsches, failed coups, inane invasions and ridiculous revolutions”.

The book was first published in 2008 and the authors dedicate it to all the people who have suffered the horror of the war.

According to the authors, degrees of stupidity are identified in the book, which enumerates the following degrees.

1. Max Blowbacks.
2. Good Plan, Stupid Goal.
3. Bad Planning.
4. Number of Casualties.

Examples of these degrees are:

The one waged by Roman Emperor Valens against the Goths in the eastern part of the empire, who eventually paid with his life his lack of determination.

The controversial role of Romania during WWII fighting in both fronts, a role that became Romania one of the countries behind the Iron Curtain with the consequences expected.

The ‘Bay of Pigs’ invasion, which has been probably the worst operation planned in the history of armed conflicts.

The Chaco War, a huge loss of human beings for a worthless piece of land in the middle of South America’s desert.

Other examples of stupid conflicts are the The War of the Pacific in 1879, well known as the Poop War; The Winter war between Russia and Finland in 1939 when the finns lost the war because the strength of Russian troops in spite of they had killed three times the number of their troops; The U.S. invasion of Grenada in 1983 when the eccentric dictator of this tiny island in the middle of the Caribbean started to flirt with Castro, using to achieve the goal two full equipped Marine Divisions.