Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1917-06-28
A LESSON FROM MEsOPOTAMlA

Comparatively early in the war a British force was
sent up the Ttgris valley to effect the capture of Bagdad
to bring pressure to bear on the Turks and their allies
from the east. That object has been attained. Bagdad
has been taken, the entire Tigris valley is in the control
OF the British. and the Turkish forces above the ancient
city have been driven from place to place with enormous
losses. until they are disorganized and demoralized.
But all of this was not effected without disaster to
the British troops. The first expedition reached within
about twenty miles of Bagdad, where 1t met large bodies
of Turks. was checked and forced to retire. A rapid re-
treat down the river was made until the town of Kut ell
Amara was reached. This place the dwindling British
army undertook to hold until reinforcements came. The
town was held week after week, and still the reinforce
ments which were fighting their way north did not ar
rye. AT length, being at the point of starvation, and
with no relief in sight, the town was surrendered, and
the entire army which had been defending it was taken
captive. The entire campaign had been a failure. All
the stores that had been used, all the ammunition that
had been expended, all the food and forage that had
been consumed, all the lives that had been sacrificed had
been wasted. The British were just where they began,
and unless their object was to be abandoned, everything
had to be done over again.
1t was done over again, and done more effectively,
but charged against the account is all the waste of the
first expedition, with nobody knows what moral effect on
campaigns in other sections Of the war area. What was
the trouble? A British commission has been investigat-
ing, and Its report has just been filed. After an exhaust
i've investigation the commission finds that while the ex-
petition was a %justifable military enterprise it was un-
dertaken with insufficient forces and inadequate prepar-
ation."
In other words, men in charge Of affairs, who are
named and not spared in the report, had conceived a
meritorious plan and had undertaken to carry it out, but
had frittered away the force Of the nation by half doing
things as they went along. The report, of course, 10 a
voluminous document in which attention is given to
numerous details of the expedition. Melton is made of
two slaring defects. The medical service was made
auate. and because OF this the health, and therefore the
effectiveness Of the troops suffered. Transportation was
poorly organized, hence supplies were delayed and the
needed achievements could not reach the beleagured
troops in time.
Those responsible for the hasco are severely CEN
sured. and deserved1y so. But there are mitigating cir
cumstances. War on a large scale was a new thing to
the existing British government Many things were to
be learned, and the experience Of the past did not At in
with the new condition. 1t was necessary to cut and
try. and then to cut and try again. Mistakes were made.
some Of them very costly.
We in the United States have not the same excuse
for making similar blunders. We have seen the thing