Genghis Khan would have applauded the US use of shock and awe.

April 23, 2005

Days of Empire

Horseman of the apocalypse
by James Chambers
Genghis Khan would have applauded the US use of shock and awe to take Iraq. And why not — it worked for him 750 years ago

If history repeats itself, the story of Baghdad is perfect evidence of it. Nothing much has happened there recently that the ancient city has not seen before.

The military methods used by its latest conquerors two years ago were exactly the same as those employed when it was first taken almost 750 years earlier. Like the Mongols and their Christian allies, who conquered Baghdad in 1258, the Americans and their friends converged on it in several columns, overwhelming anything that was sent to meet them with hugely superior mobility and firepower. With token support from a few cautious Shia, they slipped into the suburbs, surrounded the city and softened it with a devastating bombardment before making their final assault. But the similarity does not end with a general summary of their strategies. The tactical details were identical, too.

In 1927 Britain’s leading strategist, B. H. Liddell Hart, wrote that the tank and the plane were the heirs to the Mongol horsemen. In his view the same tactics applied; and there were many, including Germany’s Heinz Guderian, the father of blitzkrieg, who agreed with him. Before long the campaigns of Genghis Khan were being studied in British, French, German and American military academies, just as they had always been in Russia. The Second World War began with blitzkrieg, a mechanised version of the swift, crippling attacks carried out by the Mongols in the 13th century; and in the course of the war two of the leading tank commanders, Rommel and Patton, acknowledged that they were students of Genghis Khan.

Like all soldiers of the steppes since the days of the Parthians more than 2,000 years ago, the Mongols were mounted archers. By timing the release of their arrows to come between the footfalls of their horses, they could maintain their accuracy even at the canter, just as stabilisers enable guns to keep their aim while the bodies of their tanks roll up and down. But none of their commanders used this skill as devastatingly as the Great Khan.

The characteristic which made Genghis Khan the most successful conqueror in history was his genius for organisation. He mustered his army in multiples of ten, subjected it to regular and rigorous training, issued it with standardised equipment, including long-range, short-range and armour-piercing arrows, and selected and promoted his officers entirely on merit, not breeding.

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