Epic Battles in History

I

Boehner Urges G.O.P. Unity in ‘Epic Battle’

...But on the matter causing all the Congressional stress, the speaker offered no clue as to how he expected Congress to get out of the dead end it has found itself in, with the government shut for a fourth day and no clear path to raise the federal debt limit to avoid the nation’s first default. “We are locked in an epic battle,” the speaker told his rank and file, those who attended the meeting said, urging them to “hang tough.”

The overarching problem for the man at the center of the budget fight, say allies and opponents, is that he and his leadership team have no real idea how to resolve the fiscal showdown....

  

  The New York Times, October 4, 2013

II

“Forward, the Light Brigade!”

Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldier knew
Someone had blundered.

  Tennyson