If you want an example of how studying the past can tell us things about the present, look no further than the lowly bayonet.
Many people question the utility of the bayonet in today’s world. Sticking a knife on the end of an M-16 hardly seems a major increase to it’s lethality. If anything you’d think it would get in the way, more than it would help. Bill Mauldin famously had a soldier looking in wonder as he exclaimed “Hey did you know this can opener fits on the end of a rifle?”
But lets look at history. The bayonet came about after muskets had been around on the battlefield for a while. Back then people couldn’t fire muskets fast enough to stop cavalry riding them down, so they relied upon pike formations for protection. Then someone got the idea of sticking a knife on the end of a musket. Instant spear, yea! The days of the pike formations were numbered. A group of musketeers could huddle together behind their long muskets with their attached bayonets and ward of the horsemen.
And that is the key. A GROUP of musketeers. The bayonet isn’t designed for individual combat. It’s designed to be used in a group. That single knife sticking awkwardly off the end of am M-16 may look a bit silly. But imagine this. A group of soldiers line up, the officer shouts “Fix bayonets!” and as one the line of soldiers brings out those knives and attach them to the rifles. Then they start advancing together towards a crowd. People are going to run and get out of their way. It happened in Afghanistan, Iraq, and in the Falklands.