Stupidity is a specific cognitive failing
Calling trench warfare stupid because of conceptual obsolescence seems suspect. It was a new problem with no obvious solution. Trench warfare in the US Civil War didn&#x27;t end in such a stalemate so there wasn&#x27;t much precedence, There were newer automatic weapons and a vast scale of the armies covering an entire front that hadn&#x27;t been seen before.<p>A stalemate might have been the best available outcome at the time where other alternatives would allow enemy advances. I believe the only &quot;solution&quot; was the tank which had yet to be invented and it&#x27;s invention was a direct consequence of the stalemate. It doesn&#x27;t seem right to call someone stupid for experiencing a problem that led to an invention.<p>I would only call the pre-tank strategies &quot;stupid&quot; if the decisions discarded available information and solutions.