Loved by one's enemies or feared by one's friends?

[plloyd1010]

Firstly this conversation has become far more serious than the "isn't that cute?" sort of thought that had inspired the original post. That said:

None of the finalists, including Napoleon, ever posed an existential threat to England. The threat attributed to Napoleon has more to do with the French Revolution. The fundamental problem was that a population, of a country with real power and close enough to be dangerous, had risen up and overthrown the monarchy. England, and almost every other country, was a monarchy and most of those populations were none too happy with their governments. So the success of the French Revolution is more the threat than Napoleon. How often did Napoleon actually fight the British? I only recall 1 direct military confrontation which led, and he lost. Otherwise all the fights, which are of Britain's making, are with his underlings. Now Napoleon may be considered Austria's, Prussia, or Russia's greatest military enemy, but not Britain's.

Washington does lead an army in direct confrontation with British forces on several occasions. Honestly, he doesn't do very well, something like a 35-40% overall success rate. What he is good at is keeping the revolution alive. On 2 or 3 occasions he is personally responsible for keeping the revolution going. It is true that Washington's opponents didn't understand the situation. Apart from Cornwallis, & possibly Bourgoyne, British generals treated the American Revolution much like a European war.

I don't know if that makes Washington the greatest enemy or not. The turmoil and later loss of the colonies was severe blow to the realm, both financially & in military readiness.

One more thing: Ataturk came in first in the online vote.