America Needs Men With The Courage To Take A Stand

The Lesson Of Thermopylae
America needs men with the courage to take a stand

I live in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., a lovely city in northern Palm Beach County. When I am home for the weekends, my Saturday and Sunday morning ritual is to get in my H3 Hummer, head over to Loggerhead Park and enjoy the breathtaking vista of Juno and Jupiter beaches during a 5- to 6-mile run along A1A. There is nothing more spectacular than a brilliant sunrise over the ocean and being out running with some of the fittest folks in South Florida.

As I drive to the park, I tune in to “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Sirius/XM radio. Last weekend, the discussion was all about the House-passed legislation to fund the government temporarily while also defunding the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

The discussion among the hosts and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee always came back to numbers and Republicans not having the votes to win or the GOP only having control of House, not Senate and White House. Some people categorize the House’s passage of the bill as a pyrrhic victory.

As I ran on Saturday morning, I pondered the commentary, and as a career military officer and strategist, I thought of the concept of pyrrhic victories. Well, one battle immediately came to mind – the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. – and it actually occurred around the same time of year, late August to early September, as Greek historian Herodotus documented.

More than a pyrrhic victory

Some of you remember the story from the movie “300” released a few years ago. The story also was told in an earlier film, “The 300 Spartans.” Regardless, the story is one of the greatest episodes of courage, honor and tactical brilliance.

Persian King Xerxes sought to exact revenge against the Greeks for the previous defeat of his father Darius I at the Battle of Marathon. Upon the death of his Father, Xerxes continued preparations, and in the second invasion of Greece, he amassed an even greater army and navy.

Leonidas pleaded with Sparta’s Council of Elders, called Ephors, to let him march the Spartan army to meet the invading Persians. They denied that request because of an impending Spartan festival. Leonidas knew that stemming the invasion and breaking its initiative was important to the future of freedom and of Greece. He decided, within his right, to call up his personal guard of 300 men.

Realizing the numerical superiority of the advancing Persians, he selected terrain that afforded him a battle advantage based upon Spartan tactics. He chose to make the blocking maneuver at a place called the “Hot Gates,” or Thermopylae, a narrow pass with mountains on one side and the sea on the other.

Word spread that the fierce fighters would march to Thermopylae. Troops from other Greek city-states joined Leonidas and his 300 Spartans, and their numbers grew to an estimated 7,000. It was still a far inferior force in numbers to the Persian horde. However, the Greeks arrived at the Hot Gates ahead of the Persians and began fortifying their position.

Over three days, the Greeks exacted massive casualties against the Persians. It took a Greek traitor who showed the Persians a hidden mountain pass to the rear of the Thermopylae defense to initiate the fateful end for the Spartans.

But under the Spartan code, the law of Lycurgus, there would be no retreat. As a matter of fact, Spartan mothers issued their sons their shields with the command to “return bearing your shield or being borne upon it.”

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