Comparing ancient Rome to modern America, we're on fast-forward and the Visigoths are through the gates. by Billy Roper
(libertarian)
Sunday, May 16, 2010
It sure seems like the world situation can't get any crazier. As someone recently wrote, the U.S. is prepared to give military assistance to almost every country in the world but Iran and North Korea. Our country now has troops in well over 100 foreign countries -over 150 by one count. Some of these are small training groups, but hey, 150 countries.
Just as no social program ever seems to disappear once it gets going, the U.S. can't seem to pull troops out of countries once it puts them in. We have troops in Germany and Japan left over from WWII. Heck, we've had troops in the Philippines, with a short break in the 90's, since 1899.
It is of course in Afghanistan and Iraq that the US troops are busiest. By many accounts, the pacification of Afghanistan has completely failed. Instead of the stable, albeit anti-Western, government that existed before the invasion, Afghanistan has reverted to it's thousand-year tradition of warlords and bandits, plus it has become again one of the world's top producers of opium. Reportedly, the US wants to pass the losing effort in Afghanistan on to NATO. That will be a hard sell; it seems logical that at some point next year the US has to withdraw whether the Taliban come back or not. And in fact the Taliban has been regrouping in that country and attacking US and Afghanistan government troops. The Russian army, with far more men and equipment, and with far more brutality, could not pacify Afghanistan in ten years of vicious fighting, and at that time Afghanistan was on their southern border. It is not a question of if the Western nations are pushed out of Afghanistan, but when.
Then there is the center ring, Iraq. The past November was the costliest as far as casualties the US has experienced so far in the entire Iraqi War. There were MORE casualties than in the first month of the invasion. Reportedly, the US and coalition forces experience about 140 contacts with enemy forces in Iraq per day. That includes all random gunfire, mines, booby-traps - every instrument of guerilla war.
I can't help comparing this with the historical example of the fall of the Roman Empire. Rome had expanded over the known world by about 100 A.D., with troops busy enforcing Roman rule in every part. No one imagined it could ever end. Yet internally the rot had already begun, with incompetent Emperors, Imperial overreach, and bad social programs. When various barbarian tribes were pressuring the borders of the Empire several hundred years later, Rome lacked the will and the legions to fully resist. So it attempted to turn the barbarians into Romans. At first it worked, and the tribes were used to fight yet other barbarians attacking Roman territory. But relatively quickly the barbarians began getting out of control; eventually they sacked Rome and ended the Empire.
The former Republic of America has disappeared, replaced by a New World Order oligarchy. America appears to have over-reached militarily in the Middle East. At the same time, the Empire is being invaded from the south by millions of barbarians that can not be assimilated, that in fact will refuse to assimilate, and desire to take over territory. Balkanization, secession, and dissolution will follow. Rome had their Visigoths, and we have our Mexicans.
Sic transit gloria mundi.
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