© Bloomberg/The Dickinson Press/Getty Images/Joe Raedle/Spectator.us/KJNCIA Dir. Gina Haspel • US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo • US AG Bill Barr
"The saying
'the buck stops here' derives from the slang expression
"pass the buck" which means passing the responsibility on to someone else"This piece begins with an asymmetrical question to the subject of taking (or imposing) responsibility for disaster; why is it Europe worships its biggest losers? Because the collective memory of any given (European, includes its colonial progeny) society constitutes a state of denial or refusal to take responsibility for colossal mistakes?
"History is the lie commonly agreed upon" -Voltaire
Recalling and considering Voltaire was French, we can, by way of introduction to the following essay, simply point out
Napoleon was a multiple loser, several times on a grand scale,
who'd drained France of both blood & treasure. Despite the destruction of the 'Grande Armée' (380,000 dead French empire soldiers solely due to Napoleon's Russia campaign) and ultimate defeat at Waterloo,
Napoleon is regarded as 'great.' WTF. Fewer, if any, created greater mischief for France than Napoleon. Following on Russia, it was Britain finally imposed responsibility on a greatly weakened France.
As well, then we have aftermath.
Napoleon was responsible for the initial unity of several German principalities that ultimately led to the modern German state, and, with his 'Napoleonic Code' imposed upon these, introduced the idea of a 'uniform education' that, shortly after, inspired Prussia to (with Rules!, Obey!) educate all future Germans into Prussian mentalities
and we know what that blessed France with, only a short century later, WWI & 'pause' WWII.
Comment: See also: