Almost overnight the massive bridge of "Mitteleuropa" has crumbled at
its central span, leaving exhausted Turkey foredoomed to speedy
surrender and laying distracted Austria open to the combined assaults of
Allied arms and domestic revolution. So stupendous are the possibilities
flowing from the Allies' September offensive in Macedonia that we are
almost tempted to believe that the age of miracles is come again.
[Sidenote: The war-spirit of Bulgaria weakens.]
Yet in such hours we should clarify our vision by insistent remembrance
of Clausewitz's famous saying that war is but the extension of politics.
For brilliant as was the Franco-Serbian escalade of mid-September,
storming successive mountain walls as though they were mere trench lines
and shearing through war-hardened Bulgarian divisions like a knife
through rotten cheese, there was more than fighting involved. For the
last year and even longer a combination of circumstances had been
weaning Bulgaria from her former solidarity with the Central powers, and
this disruptive process, proceeding with special rapidity during the
last few months, had been steadily sapping the morale of the Bulgarian
people and the war-spirit of the Bulgarian soldiery. From the broader
point of view, therefore, the Allies' Macedonian offensive must be
deemed not merely a skilful military operation, but even more a
well-timed garnering of fruits ripe for the plucking. In such masterly
combinations of strategy and politics lies the secret of decisive
victory.
Pages:
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207