What is Digg?42 Comments
- urbanetruth, on 10/27/2009, -1/+28leaving an exposed exhaust port on the Death Star
- jmdwinter, on 10/28/2009, -1/+12South Africa has a couple of good ones.
The Zulu Kingdom inflicted the worst defeat on the British Empire by a native people in the battle of Isandlwana. 1300 British soldiers killed and eviscerated! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Isandlwana
Also the Zulu's were on the receiving end of a sound thrashing at the Battle of Blood River when just 470 Boers defeated an army of 10000 Zulu warriors due to superior tactics and weaponry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_River - Volatile36, on 10/28/2009, -1/+9Dugg for suggesting Top 10 Rapes of All Time.
- taibo, on 10/28/2009, -0/+7As much of a disaster as it is, the US hasn't had any major battle where it's been massacred by insurgents, so no.
- joemc72, on 10/28/2009, -0/+7That was an aesthetic choice by the architects. Blame them. :)
- Dynamoo, on 10/27/2009, -1/+8Dieppe Raid, anyone? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieppe_raid
- OptykUnreal, on 10/28/2009, -0/+6They could have had it fixed the next day if price wasn't an issue.
- Rugby4Ever, on 10/28/2009, -0/+4*grabs popcorn*
0.0 - bstepanian, on 10/28/2009, -0/+4They forgot the Battle of Cannae, 70,000 Romans died!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cannae - TyrelVnne, on 10/28/2009, -0/+3I read that as "hey im a dumb ***** who doesn't know digg at all".
- guttersniper, on 10/28/2009, -0/+3It was a defeat for the Greeks, but not a catastrophe by any stretch. If you thought it was a catastrophe for the Persians you should probably stop watching 300 over and over again continuously.
- joemc72, on 10/28/2009, -0/+3Estimates! Always get estimates!
- Locastus, on 10/28/2009, -0/+3I'd just like to point out that during the Fall of Tenochtitlan, the Spanish were aided by around 200,000 allies from the cities of Tlaxcala, Tliliuhquitepec, and Huexotzinco who were traditional enemies of the Aztecs.
Plus the Spanish had been invited in as guests and decided to betray their hosts during a religious festival.
Hardly a glorious victory... - jmdwinter, on 10/28/2009, -0/+2Ooh nice parting shot. Bet you dugg down all my posts as well like a champ! Sigh. I guess I can't claim victory as we're likely both equally retarded due to the 'arguing-on-the-internet' law.
- jmdwinter, on 10/28/2009, -0/+2}
- mickstephenson, on 10/28/2009, -0/+2Parting hug? {
- Rugby4Ever, on 10/27/2009, -1/+3too bad the other side views it as the top 10 military 'under-dog' victories
- heynow21, on 10/27/2009, -1/+3Thermopylae would probably be the top but I enjoyed looking up all the obscure ones.
- mickstephenson, on 10/28/2009, -0/+2Ditto mate, at least I didn't end my part by resorting to Godwin's law (in a really pathetic way, which when I called out on you gave up)
- jmdwinter, on 10/28/2009, -1/+2You know what's odd? The fact that I had zero interest in taking sides when referencing 2 of south africa's most famous battles and yet all you see is an afront to the British empire. That or you don't like references to black military competency.
From wikipedia: "Despite the differential in weapons technology, the numerically superior Zulus ultimately overwhelmed the indifferently deployed British killing over 1,300 troops" and "The battle was a decisive tactical victory for the Zulus and initially resulted in the strategic collapse of the British invasion."
That sounds a military catastrophe to me. The only one of it's kind where an army armed with spears defeated a large contingent sporting GUNS ffs. - PopASquatt, on 10/28/2009, -0/+1Lest we forget.
- mickstephenson, on 10/28/2009, -4/+5Odd you'd mention Isandlwana an unastounding victory due to the Zulu numerical superiority when immediately following that battle British soldiers actually had an impressive victory against the same Zulu soldiers but with a fraction of the soldiers that were defeated at Isandlwana http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Rorke%27s_D ...
Just seems odd considering the context of the article, and your first reference that you'd overlook that, and look to a Boer victory against the Zulu warriors to celebrate, especially considering the zeal in which you describe the British defeat and the praise you give to Boer tactics and weaponry. - mickstephenson, on 10/28/2009, -0/+1No what I saw was 2 references to South African battles presented in a way that appears to me to be consistent to (at the very least) a sympathy towards Boer nationalism. Especially considering language like "Zulu's were on the receiving end of a sound thrashing" and "1300 British soldiers killed and eviscerated! "
- jmdwinter, on 10/28/2009, -1/+2While their is an undeniable connection between apartheid and afrikanerdom, to harbour ill feeling toward them as a people makes you just as much of a hate mongerer as you purport them to be. I suppose you think that Germans are anti-semetic and the French are rude.
- jmdwinter, on 10/28/2009, -1/+2Oh ok. So you were confused. Even if I was sympathetic towards boer nationalism how is that wrong? I think that says a lot about your prejudice towards afrikaners.
- guttersniper, on 10/28/2009, -0/+1If the Greeks had held out longer, the Persians may have had to withdraw to keep their massive army supplied. The Greek strategy at the time did not call for a delaying action; the Persians never were to get past Thermopylae. Obviously, the Greeks failed to stop there. So . . . Marathon was a disaster for the Persians; Plataea was a disaster for the Persians; Salamis was a disaster for the Persians; Issus was a disaster for the Persians; Thermopylae was a defeat for the Greeks.
Since I'm too lazy to find any other source with this view, look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Thermopylae ... - jmdwinter, on 10/28/2009, -1/+2So now you're accusing me of being a boer nationalist sympathiser again? I thought I cleared that up earlier. As far as I'm concerned you've dug yourself a hole and you're trying to get out of it by arguing semantics.
I'm over this argument. - mickstephenson, on 10/28/2009, -0/+1No that's a completely ridiculous and unfair accusation, I have never accused Boer and those of Boer heritage of being White supremacists, I have only accused Boer nationalists, I have made that clear in all my comments.
And with regard to my "assumptions" considering that you're a white South African with at least some sympathy to Boer nationalism I don't think you can claim I was too far off the money in my assumptions, based on the language you used in the first comment, in fact I was go as far to say as I was impressively astute to have gleaned so much from the language of your comment. - mickstephenson, on 10/28/2009, -0/+1Considering that Boer nationalism is pretty much occupies a spectrum between "Whites should get along with the blacks, as long as they submit to the fact that whites are made for ruling and blacks are made for labour" and "Africa should be totally white" that's why I have a prejudice against Boer nationalism.
Considering you're from Australia this also concerns me with respects to your opinions concerning Aborigine population in Oz. - heynow21, on 10/28/2009, -0/+1It was OF COURSE a catastrophe for the Persians. Point me to one account which says otherwise?
- mshensley, on 10/28/2009, -0/+1They forgot the Russian invasion of Finland in 1939.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_War - jmdwinter, on 10/28/2009, -1/+2Ok assumption man first you need to get your facts straight.
Boer Nationalism: "Their nationalism was born of hundreds of years of fighting against imperialism, a continuing struggle for independence battling mainly British expansion into central South Africa, as well as the harsh African climate, a strong sense of nationhood."
Boer nationalism has nothing to do with white supremacy.
I guess the fact that I live in Australia means there's no chance I was born in Durban and moved to Brisbane to join my family after finishing my degree in Cape Town. Yeah no chance of that being the case.
(on a side note, as an open minded south african, these aussies don't have a clue how to conduct race relations. eg: that michael jackson ripoff that made the news recently) - mickstephenson, on 10/28/2009, -0/+1What Boer nationalism was born from is of no relevance to the actual views Boer nationalism actually projects today, and even if it did, your romantic wikipedia quote makes no mention of their views on the black population they had back then anyway. Boer nationalism has everything to do with white supremacy, to deny that is to deny the goals that Boer nationalists state themselves willingly.
- Astrad, on 10/28/2009, -0/+1How about the Mongol invasion of Japan? Possibly a 100,000 or more drowned at sea.
http://asianhistory.about.com/od/japan/a/Mongolinv ... - KelticKal, on 10/29/2009, -0/+0How about the Battle of New Orleans?
- rebrad, on 10/28/2009, -2/+1There are many in the world that think Obama's election as Commander in Chief as an under-dog victory. But as the American people are finding out his election was our worst military disaster.
- edlowe0, on 10/28/2009, -2/+1Pretty sure France should be on here.
- swantamer, on 10/28/2009, -5/+4The wars in Iraq & Afghanistan: we didn't go nuclear and leave only lifeless, smoking craters behind.
- monodelasno, on 10/28/2009, -1/+0Thanks, I couldn't remember the name of that one.
And while we're on the tack of more recent failures
-Bay of Pigs
-Market Garden
Or how about Custards blunder at Little Big Horn - caution, on 10/28/2009, -2/+1I think there's a bunch of Sikhs who would disagree. "The Battle of Saragarhi is considered one of the greatest stories of collective bravery in human history. The contingent of twenty-one soldiers from the 36th Sikhs was led by Havildar Ishar Singh, and held off an Afghan attack of 10,000 men for several hours."
- OptykUnreal, on 10/28/2009, -3/+110,000 dead Austrians all because of alcohol. Never read that about weed.
- smashTasker, on 10/27/2009, -17/+2What about the Iraq war?
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is