The Decline Of Modern Leadership

When empires used to go to war
against the smaller countries
that they absorbed to sustain them
those wars were always fought
with the leaders of the empire
to the fore in the field of battle.

As recently as two hundred years ago
Napoleon used to lead his charges,
from the front, from land or sea,
But he was nearly the last of a dying breed,
as battles changed in character,
and theatres of war got technology.

From the gatling gun,
the first rapid fire weapon,
invented in in 1861,
to the remote robotics of today
a mere 150 years later,
the more lethal the weapon
the less engaged the leaders are
as to where the battle line are,
and how the war is fought.

This process that makes peace,
the absence of conflict,
ever harder to recognise directly.