From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII X-Google-Thread: 103376,5cb36983754f64da X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2004-02-15 13:53:57 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news2.google.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.icl.net!newsfeed.fjserv.net!news.algonet.se!algonet!news-stob.telia.net!telia.net!217.209.241.173.MISMATCH!masternews.telia.net.!newsc.telia.net.POSTED!not-for-mail From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Bj=F6rn_Persson?= User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.4.1) Gecko/20031114 X-Accept-Language: sv, en-us MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Comparative military mythology (was: No call for Ada (was Re: Announcing new scripting/prototyping language)) References: <7ridnSngofCUybDd4p2dnA@comcast.com> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Message-ID: Date: Sun, 15 Feb 2004 21:53:54 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 217.209.116.179 X-Complaints-To: abuse@telia.com X-Trace: newsc.telia.net 1076882034 217.209.116.179 (Sun, 15 Feb 2004 22:53:54 CET) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 15 Feb 2004 22:53:54 CET Organization: Telia Internet Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:5582 Date: 2004-02-15T21:53:54+00:00 List-Id: Alexandre E. Kopilovitch wrote: > Robert I. Eachus wrote: >>Do you know of any other country=20 >>where the man touted as the most brilliant General (Napolean) is more=20 >>famous for his losses than his victories. (Waterloo and the retreat=20 >>from Moscow.) >=20 > But if you still need "another country" - try to look at Sweden (I hear= d not > once that most revered Swedish king is exactly that who lost war with R= ussia > and brought Sweden many losses, including important territorial losses)= =2E That would be Karl XII. It's true that he is one of our most famous=20 warrior kings, maybe the most famous. I don't know if he's more famous=20 for his losses than his victories. He's probably most famous for his deat= h. For some inexplicable reason he is almost worshipped by xenophobics, but = other than that I wouldn't exactly call him revered. It seems to me that = most Swedes don't rever anyone as a warrior. It was different in the=20 past. Statues were raised, our history was glorified in literature and=20 poetry, and our national anthem speaks about grandeur and glory in=20 ancient times, but we seem to have left that behind. We may compare=20 ourselves to the vikings or talk about "the language of glory and=20 heroes", but that's in a joking manner. Maybe 190 years of peace does=20 that to a people. --=20 Bj=F6rn Persson jor ers @sv ge. b n_p son eri nu