Taking Vienna

Back in March, conservative Washington Post columnist Charles "Von Clausewitz" Krauthammer all but called President Obama a pointy-headed dandy for intervening in Libya under the auspices of NATO. Herr Field Marshal Krauthammer called it the "Ivy League Professor's War." And he simply could not fathom why we weren't landing the Marines on the shores of Tripoli again. Krauthammer concluded his screed with a sweeping Napoleonic lament: "A man who dithers over parchment. Who starts a war from which he wants out right away. Good God. If you go to take Vienna, take Vienna!" Five months later, of course, Obama took "Vienna" and deposed Qaddafi. Napoleon suffered 34,000 casualties when he took Vienna at the 1809 Battle of Wagram. In the "Professor's War," Obama lost ― nobody. Six years after Napoleon's victory, the Congress of Vienna declared him an outlaw. And after his rout at the Battle of Waterloo, the Emperor himself was deposed. Obama can rest assured that history won't repeat itself. It will, however, relegate the foolish Herr Krauthammer to a footnote, if it remembers him at all.