No Surrender

The Greek General Pyrrhus, who won victory after victory against Rome. "Pyrrhic victories."

The secret to most success is simple: just don’t give up until you are winning. If you never give up, you never lose.

Of course, it is not quite as simple as that in practice: sometimes you have to cut your losses before you bankrupt yourself. But many great empires have been built on this simple principle. In both the first and the second Punic Wars, Carthage began by beating the crapusculum out of Rome. They sank the entire Roman fleet twice. Hannibal stormed about Italy at will, pillaging and looting, without effective opposition. But Rome, behind her walls, refused to accept defeat, and never agreed to peace—until they finally won a battle or two. Then, they were ready to talk.

The black knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail is the embodiment of the historic English character. Bulldog tenacity; the stiff upper lip; sangfroid; keep calm and carry on. Everything is only a flesh wound. From Crecy to El Alamein, Britain always loses every battle of every war--except the last. An orderly retreat is seen, rightly, as a great victory. This kind of perversity built the biggest empire the world has ever known.

The French retreat from Moscow, 1812.

Russia, too, aided by her vast distances, has perfected the technique. Napoleon defeated Russia in 1812, and occupied Moscow. Hitler defeated Russia in every encounter in 1941. But each time they lost, Russia just retreated and built another defensive line a hundred kilometers further back. Eventually, both Napoleon and Hitler punched themselves out, and, exhausted, were forced to withdraw. What can you do when the other guys just won’t lie down and die?