Crowdsourcing: Ten Worst American Generals

[cupper]

Caught this on David Frum's blog, linkingto an interesting yet brief discussion by Tom Ricks about who would be on a list of America's worst Generals.

Crowdsourcing: Ten Worst American Generals

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/19/crowdsourcing-ten-worst-american-generals.html

David Corn's tough-but-fair hit piece on Gen. Tommy Franks links to Tom Ricks' list of the 10 worst generals in US history, on which Franks ranks fourth.

I won't defend Franks, but the generals' list seems not very adequate to me. No way was George McClellan (listed) a worse general than Ambrose Burnside. And where's William Hull? Over to you military history buff readers: can you improve on Ricks' list?

Here is Tom Rick's list.

The worst general in American history?

http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/06/02/the_worst_general_in_american_history

That was the discussion I was having yesterday with several friends. Here is my ranking of their nominees:

1. Douglas MacArthur
2. Benedict Arnold
3. Ned Almond
4. Tommy R. Franks
5. William Westmoreland
6. George McClellan
7. Ambrose Burnside
8. Horatio Gates

It was my contest, so I declared MacArthur the No. 1 loser, because of his unique record of being insubordinate to three presidents (Hoover, Roosevelt and Truman) as well as screwing up the Korean War. Plus additional negative points for his role in the gassing and suppression of the Bonus Marchers in 1932. You can't defend a country by undermining it.

It really is extraordinary how the Army has extirpated his memory. The influence of Marshall, Eisenhower and Bradley lives on, while MacArthur has been treated as a historical dead end. Kind of amazing, considering he was a general for 26 years, was the Army chief of staff, received the Medal of Honor, fought in three wars and was a senior commander in two.

And here is the link to the article on Tommy Franks that Frum refers to in his post.

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/10/romney-military-adviser-tommy-franks-iraq

 

[tomahawk6]

Corn and buddies are a bunch of anti-military leftists. Their list of nominee's are complete crap.

 

[cupper]

Corn and buddies are a bunch of anti-military leftists. Their list of nominee's are complete crap.

I'll give you the point on David Corn.

But the list was put together by Tom Ricks.

And there are some good examples from history on that list.

 

[tomahawk6]

When MacArthur's name is put first the author lost all credibility with me. Bad generals have occurred in our history and they were most pronounced in the Civil War. Bad decisions killed tens of thousands of men at a time. Tactics did not adjust for modern weapons. Units would line up on open fields much as they had done in the Revolution or in Europe in the Napoleonic Wars.It was murder on a grand scale. I think you could name nearly 10 civil war generals that would truely be terrible battlefield commanders. Burnside was one of the worst.Ricks' list smacks of an agenda. MacArthur wasnt perfect but he knew his business and he helped win the Pacific War. His ego got in the way in Korea. I dont even think Westmoreland was a bad general. Vietnam was the first war where the generals had to fight with one hand tied behind their back.Ditto for Afghanistan. When we go to war we shouldnt screw around. Our goal should be to find and destroy the enemy. Just as we did in WW2.The list is crap.

 

[Old Sweat]

When MacArthur's name is put first the author lost all credibility with me. Bad generals have occurred in our history and they were most pronounced in the Civil War. Bad decisions killed tens of thousands of men at a time. Tactics did not adjust for modern weapons. Units would line up on open fields much as they had done in the Revolution or in Europe in the Napoleonic Wars.It was murder on a grand scale. I think you could name nearly 10 civil war generals that would truely be terrible battlefield commanders. Burnside was one of the worst.Ricks' list smacks of an agenda. MacArthur wasnt perfect but he knew his business and he helped win the Pacific War. His ego got in the way in Korea. I dont even think Westmoreland was a bad general. Vietnam was the first war where the generals had to fight with one hand tied behind their back.Ditto for Afghanistan. When we go to war we shouldnt screw around. Our goal should be to find and destroy the enemy. Just as we did in WW2.The list is crap.

I agree.

 

[Greymatters]

Is there any indication of what criteria they used to judge and convict these Generals? I didn't see any indication of it and I can think of worse Generals that arent on the list...

 

[daftandbarmy]

Is there any indication of what criteria they used to judge and convict these Generals? I didn't see any indication of it and I can think of worse Generals that arent on the list...

Good point. What about the guy that closed all the fast food joints in Afghanistan? That's got to earn him a spot on this list.

 

[Greymatters]

PM inbound with better example...

 

[the 48th regulator]

This thread is Crass, and based on some Bilbo Bloggin type lists.

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