Napoleon Bonaparte

If I was fortunate enough to be able to dine with Napoleon Bonaparte, I would ask him the most important question in this world: Why did he do it?. To me, Napoleon is a shining example of the prowess of humankind. He had experience, he had innovation, he had skill, and he had all the things that you needed to consider a person great in our civilization. However, although Napoleon I was a man of extraordinary stature, his shortcoming was that he could never see farther than the horizon. The French Emperor did not know how to extend his greatness to the betterment a common ideal. He did not use his influence to attempt paradise on earth. Instead, he chose an alternative path, a world of conflict and death. As he looked over the curvature of the world, he still could not see the error in the choices he had made. He could only see the battlefield and the curvature of the sword, and so it was in the end on the battlefield that he eventually lost. Had Napoleon had greater foresight, he would have been remembered as an even better man- had he accomplished more for mankind.
The conversation would start out with a simple call and receive. Qui? Why? He would look at me puzzled and muse over the question of whether I could speak French or not. And then, as I sit there staring at him with the sadness and spark of anger in my eyes, he would understand. Napoleon, in all his glory, would finally "get it." He had fought his wars in vain, in a human effort that weighed miserably in an attempt to "veni, vedi, vichi" all. All he wanted was some power, he muffled.