Best General of All Time?

[King Tech Quadafi]

Even Massouds work against the Soviets, while commendable, was tainted by the cease fire he had against the Soviets.

Strategically, it allowed Massoud to rest, and re arm his soldiers, and bring in reinforcements etc. However, the rest of the Mujahideen were not big on cease fires during an invasion.

[Genius]

We can all agree that it's.... PRUNING TIME

[TheSheriff]

Massoud, at his peak, had 25,000...He was making advances before 9/11 (albeit small ones). Oh, and that number includes the Uzbeks, who pretty much refused to take orders from him. It doesn't include the Hazaras (5,000 of them fought the Taliban, calling themselves the "Eastern Alliance"). Nor does it include the 1000 men or so that were in Pakistan, under the auspices of the Royal Guard.

The Taliban, before 9/11, had over 60,000 regular troops facing him, along with a similar number of militia.

[TheSheriff]

We can all agree that it's.... PRUNING TIME

Pruned.

[King Tech Quadafi]

Massoud, at his peak, had 25,000...He was making advances before 9/11 (albeit small ones). Oh, and that number includes the Uzbeks, who pretty much refused to take orders from him. It doesn't include the Hazaras (5,000 of them fought the Taliban, calling themselves the "Eastern Alliance"). Nor does it include the 1000 men or so that were in Pakistan, under the auspices of the Royal Guard.

The Taliban, before 9/11, had over 60,000 regular troops facing him, along with a similar number of militia.

The Hazaras did not consititute the "Eastern Alliance". Hazaras are located in central Afghanistan, and belong predominately to Hezb I Wahdat. The Eastern Alliance consisted of Pashtun tribes in the East and South East that were either pro- King Zahir Shah, or anti Talib Pushtuns. As for Massoud, he was experiencing his worst defeats leading up to his assasination. He lost Badakhshan to the North East, and was relegated to JUST the Panjsher Valley.

[TheSheriff]

So, one defeat means a man is not a great general? Caesar, Saladin, Jackson, Patton, Alexander...they all experienced defeat. In fact, Saladin was pushed back onto JUST Jerusalem at one point, remember? Did you list him purely because he was a Muslim who beat Christians?

[TheSheriff]

The Hazaras did not consititute the "Eastern Alliance". Hazaras are located in central Afghanistan, and belong predominately to Hezb I Wahdat. The Eastern Alliance consisted of Pashtun tribes in the East and South East that were either pro- King Zahir Shah, or anti Talib Pushtuns.

My mistake. I should have said "Western Alliance" (recently released American maps show they were fighting more near the Iranian border, as the Iranian opposition were supplying them).

[King Tech Quadafi]

I never stated that one defeat means a man is not a great general. I just said Massouds accomplishments were over rated.