Here’s a topic sure to raise some discussion. I have given some considerable thought in recent years to the matter of history’s greatest military strategists (not to be confused with greatest tacticians). I now have my top five:

1) Sun Tzu: while the exact autorship is a matter of debate The Art of War is the bible of military strategy..

2) Ho Chi Minh: The progenitor of modern guerilla warfare. We see the Islamofascists following his doctrines today.

3) Winfield Scott: The Anaconda Plan; a model for modern limited war (while Sherman’s March – certainly not ‘limited’, was a later-day addition) – need I say more?

4) Dwight Eisenhower: The invasion of Europe remains an unmatched example of modern multinational industrial warfare, where management by concensus and logistics play a greater strategic role than force placement.

5) Isoroku Yamamoto: From his “rifle behind every blade of grass” pronouncement, to Japan’s ability to sustain the war against the US, he might as well have been The Oracle of Delphi.