At the outbreak of World War I, Winston Churchill was First Lord
of the Admiralty - in American parlance, Secretary of the Navy.
Hoping to bypass the attrition of trench warfare in France, he
initiated the plan for a landing in the Dardanelles Straits -
the Gallipoli campaign (a campaign in which Yosef Trumpeldor
participated at the head of the Zion Mule Corps). It began in
February 1915, and by the time British forces withdrew at the
end of the year, they had suffered over 250,000 casualties.  The
campaign was a complete fiasco and tarnished Churchill's
reputation, eventually sending him into the political wilderness
for many years. It is quite likely that when, as prime minister
during World War II almost 30 years later, he initially opposed
the plans for an Allied amphibious landing in Normandy, he was
influenced by the traumatic memories of the Gallipoli campaign.
But his hesitations were overcome and Franklin Roosevelt's
opinion prevailed.  Israel's invasion of Lebanon similarly
tarnished the reputation