The modern traveller

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1. ggmMay 2024
   Hillaire Belloc (1898): "The Modern Traveller"

     A  Mutiny  resulted. 
     I  never  shall  forget  the  way 
     That  Blood  upon  this  awful  day 
     Preserved  us  all  from  death. 
     He  stood  upon  a  little  mound, 
     Cast  his  lethargic  eyes  around, 
     And  said  beneath  his  breath: 
   
     "Whatever  happens  we  have  got 
      The  Maxim  Gun,  and  they  have  not."

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2. AnimatsJul 2016
   Today, thanks to Mikhail Kalashnikov, everybody has the Maxim gun.

   Incidentally, that line is from a humor piece, "The Modern Traveller", by Hilaire Belloc.[1] Read chapter VI for the context.

   Having plenty of firepower does not help much in counterinsurgencies. There's nobody to aim it at. "Nation-building" from the outside has a success rate of zero.[2]

   [1] https://archive.org/stream/moderntraveller00belluoft [2] http://strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/parameters/is...

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