It places us in judgment of the actions of a woman who inhabits a universe defined by war, who often makes calamitous choices; but her choices are unbearably hard, and sometimes all but impossible.
At a time of anti-establishment sentiment sweeping the west, a dynastic establishment candidate – close to Wall Street, close to foreign despots, the backer of calamitous foreign wars – was a disastrous choice.
Battered, beleaguered and increasingly bedraggled, rocked by premature departures, uncertainty about the first-choice XI, calamitous collapses and crushing defeat after crushing defeat after crushing defeat – for England in this Ashes series read Australia in India just 10 months ago.
But when he looks along the touchline at Basel's St Jakob Park on Wednesday night, the home side's manager Paulo Sousa will be reminded that, sometimes, the wrong choice might not prove calamitous.
But war is also about character and personality, individuals making choices and decisions in the heat of battle, inspired, calamitous, unfortunate and plain lucky (the quality Napoleon most prized in his generals).
One chapter in his book is titled "The Curse of the Silver Pirate," his name for the rainbow trout, which he calls one of his country's most calamitous importations from America, along with, to name a few more of his choices, Coca-Cola, Mickey Mouse and Elvis Presley.
Is Spanish-born Manuel Almunia the only choice between the sticks in South Africa next year as James proves he's a calamitous as ever?
The truly amazing thing is that this calamitous error is not, for the most part, the result of special interests, or an unwillingness to make hard choices.
Not calamitous or terminal.
The result was calamitous.
