The author's snipe at the United States (relative to Russia and China) is both jarring, for being woefully out of place in an essay on a WWI engagement, and unw

The author's snipe at the United States (relative to Russia and China) is both jarring, for being woefully out of place in an essay on a WWI engagement, and unwarranted. None of these three major powers has fought another major state for at least 4 decades. The Russians have been fighting disorganized "natives" in places like Georgia, Chechnya, and Ukraine, and rarely openly. Before that, they fought "natives" in Afghanistan… and lost. The PLA has mostly been oppressing ethnic minorities within China's expanded imperial borders (Uighurs, Tibetans, Tiananmen) since it fought "natives" in its own Vietnam War in 1979. Its last combat with a major state was 1962 (India). Meanwhile the Unites States has also been fighting small states (Iraq, Afghanistan), proxy wars, and minor actions since its last major war against "natives" in Vietnam… which they lost. Not one of these powers has fought an open war against another major state or combination of states in over 5 decades, and the Indians, militarily, probably shouldn't have counted in 1962, either. Realistically there is no one currently serving in any of these services who participated in an open war against a significant power. That this is destabilizing would have been a fair point. That the world's major powers are probably all feeling somewhat insecure about their own military capabilities (or ought to be) is worrying and worth some analysis. The kind of error made by Churchill and the French at Gallipoli will be made again. But I do not pretend to know who will make it next. There are a lot of inexperienced commanders running around out there, and a lot of major powers that have not been tested within living memory. Singling out the United States while exalting the Russians and Chinese seems overtly political and is out of place in a historical essay without substantial modern analysis to justify the analogy.