Chris Liontas

Awesome set up Brian. The whole blog put a huge smile on my face.  As a person diagnosed with ADHD, the organized non-organization aspect had me rolling.   I'm like you, I have the most organized system in the world....I just wish I could remember what it. Is :-)

I'm offended....I'm going back to "the best scotch" posting" for at least two hours!!!

Brian,

  Great article!!  It has been years since I thought about this battle.  We studied Kadesh in detail when I was in school.  It is a great example of a documented ancient battle, and you bring the propaganda angle out beautifully.  My instructor always said this battle was great because both sides thought they won.  They therefor wrote about it in detail and you could compare the sides with some accuracy.  If one side had been thumped heartily, like you said, only the victor would have written the story.  Here we have two victors, and a treaty to study. Excellent article.

    It always reminds me of Napoleon's campaign in Egypt.  When he decisively beat  the Malmukes it became, "the Battle of the Pyramids!!"  Even though the Pyramids were miles away from the battlefield.  It just sounded so good, why not use that to enthrall Europe!

I love your articles!   I understand the idea of "preaching to the converted" but I don't think it totally applies here.  On this forum rather than one topic, we have a multitude of subject matter.  I learn so much I never knew about military history on this forum, compared to say, the US militaria forum which deals specifically with one country.  You guys bring up British campaigns in India that I didn't even know existed.  More than once, I have read an article on this forum, and immediately gone and researched what you guys were talking about.

On this forum I think you are always getting a willing audience that appreciates the work you put into your blogs.  The people around here like history; they have their own niche per say, but they love overall history.  On other forums it always seems the mentality is either:

1.  we are only interested in this one topic

2.  you posted something else than topic X, BANNED!!!

   While converting the unconverted is always enjoyable and fun to do (when you finally see the lightbulb go off in someone's head), don't downplay the appreciation your love of history has here!

I always laugh at movies like that.  One thing that always cracks me up, is that when the people in  a film fire off a whole clip at someone, the bullets kind of disappear.  A guy shoots 1000 rounds at someone, and you might see one "ground strike" as the hero runs through the hail of other invisible bullets.

Great post Brian!! Really makes you question if a thing was avoidable. I always wonder what kind of information was available to people in the 1905-1914 time frame. We are so used to instant news, either on the television or newspaper (anyone else still read these? ) If anything happens in the world, we all know about it, fairly accurately, the same day. How did the people in 1910 get their news of current events. Were they even able to get news accurately. I am assuming that small hamlets in France, Germany, Britain, and Russia (let alone the Ottoman Empire) had no way of getting news about what was happening in the world, and were therefore were unable to make an informed opinion. That's were the propaganda came in, which bred distrust. I honestly don't think the world could have avoided WWI, unless the leaders would have pulled back (which in 1914 was impossible). There are a lot of parallels with Europe in 1914 and the US Civil War and the first Battle of Bull Run. People were expecting a "splendid little war" and had no idea what was coming.

I think the next big question should be, once it started---could it have been stopped? Could true American neutrality or cool heads in London/Berlin have stopped the war? (I leave out Paris as France had foreign armies on its land and would have had no choice to keep fighting after the Marne. )

This post was fantastic!! Great advice, I hope the younger collectors take heed. This post honestly should be mandatory reading for anyone starting "collecting" whether gallantry trios or pez dispensers.

" A non practicing vegetarian" made me laugh out loud....sending that to a vegan friend of mine

This was fun to read!! Thanks Brian!!

I'm getting bills for Christmas, so you are doing better than me!!

(I however win for quantity of items...... )

The site looks great!! Hopefully with the summer coming I will have more time to get on and participate, rather than just being my normal troll :}

Excellent post Brian. I am amazed, as a heath care provider, how many times I hear people tell me they dont need regular medical screenings.

Now that sounds like a great Christmas!!!

awesome Chris!! Congrats!