[Napoleon] had one prodigious advantage – he had no responsibility – he could do whatever he pleased; and no man has ever lost more armies than he did. Now with me the loss of every man told. I could not risk so much; I knew that if I ever lost five hundred men without the clearest necessity, I should be brought upon my knees to the bar of the House of the Commons.
– Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Our present day military commanders probably think in private that Old Nosey had it about hundred times easier on the PR front than they do.
“They wanted me to be another Washington.”
Napoleon Bonaparte, on the island of Elba.