| > No sane man would deny that. But no good captain would admit it. There has to be a limit, though. I think there is a difference between strategically ignore hard situations for morale reasons and simple stuborness. For some reason, this joke came to mind... There was this young frenchman NCO who was appointed as Napoleon's aide. The man noticed that his master would, in the wake of a difficult battle, always make the same request: "Jean-Baptiste, bring me my red shirt". When he finally gathered the courage to question the Emperor about this curious behavior, the great general responded. "The red shirt is meant to conceal any blood, so that the courage of my armies doesn't shatters at a critical point in battle, if I were to come wounded." For years, Jean-Baptiste remained true and loyal to Napoleon, in good or ill. Then, in the wake of Waterloo, with all the armies of Europe allied together to stop them, he knew everything was lost when his master added a second request to the red shirt. "And Jean-Baptiste, bring me my brown trousers as well". |