Brady Hoke, bad ideas, WWII (metaphor), etc.

Operation Barbarossa began in summer of 1941, but the military metaphor used in the article is the Battle of Stalingrad, which did begin in the late summer in 1942.

Granted, June is not late summer, but historians have long noted one of the biggest problems with Barbarossa was that even with an "everything goes right" timetable it would still have taken four months to destroy a force as massive as the Red Army, which leaves right about where we are now as the earliest possible time frame for wrapping up the campaign. That leaves almost no possibility of avoiding the very wet Russian autumn, and while we might say, "What's the big deal with some rain?", we live in a time and place with the Interstate Highway System, not a land of vast empty spaces with paved roads outside of cities all but nonexistent. For a long time the Yugoslav campaign in April was blamed for the late start, but in reality the spring thaw was late and Barbarossa couldn't have begun much earlier than it did.

This could have been compensated for had Hitler agreed to what many of his generals wanted - a less ambitious campaign that instead of fanning out into the vastness of Russia, rather attempted to draw the Soviets into a more concentrated, decisive battle for a single major strategic goal, with Moscow the obvious choice. But, like always, Hitler wanted it all, with three axes of advance - one aimed at Leningrad, one at Moscow, and one capturing Ukraine and the southern industrial heartland. This dispersion of the Wehrmacht's striking power, this forgoing of one of the key components of blitzkrieg's hitherto wildly successful formula, schwerpunkt - the sole emphasis on a chosen focal point over all else - made victory all but impossible from the start. This overly ambitious approach over "Let's just stick with what we already know works" is what makes the writer's comparison valid to me. 

SMH . . . kind of undercuts your point when you don't even know the phrase is rational decision, not rationale decision. Kind of stupid. But hey, you're on a roll. Don't let rationality stand in your way. Pile on, dude.

Sorry, but I have found the writing and content at EDSBS going downhill fast over the past year - IMO. 

Lazy writing is anyone that compares something mean or stupid someone did to the Nazis (eye roll).

wtf

I may print this out and frame it.

I have absolutely no  idea what you are saying but I do know it deserves an upvote.

Excellent point whatever it is.