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I don't know that taking on India is the most apt comparison, Mike, Hanson notwithstanding. Unlike Syracuse, they're not really trading partners with the enemy (who doesn't trade anyway), nor a likely source of ready income to us, nor are they threatening any friendly states to speak of. I mean, we've got nothing going for an attack on India. Athens did have some reasons for going after Syracuse.
Iran or Pakistan, or - if one wants a problem of similar difficulty, both, together - might be apt except that the former is part of the enemy while the latter is trying not to be anyone's enemy (and failing at it, too).
One of the problems with using Thucydides for more than the study of human nature is that the failure of the Sicilian Expedition can really be traced down to one freakish event, the docking of the Hermes that put Alciabedes to flight and left, gag, Nicias in charge. Absent that, I've little doubt the Sicilian Campaign would have come off splendidly. It failed, more than for any other reason, to lack of aggressiveness, indiscipline, and laziness. (A Roman consular army, of similar size, would never have failed, mostly due to their agressiveness and disciplined willingness to work till they dropped.) The Hermes would be very hard to rhyme to.
I fear that people of all ages and countries trying to rationalise our concerns and retorts.
"Once the negotiations have begun, neither the Virgin nor the Fortress will stand"
To be more unclear.
Secular in Turkey is OK.
Secular in the UK is OK.
The above statements are not equal and very scary to me.
It depends on the person and the perculiar circumstances, but a true student of history will vote to be saved rather than enslaved, if you know the differance.
None of our coke and rum brethen will be saved, alas.
I have done my war's and running away's.
God forbid more.
I will do my bit however.
F*ck the left/socialist/communist.
One of the problems with using Thucydides for more than the study of human nature is that the failure of the Sicilian Expedition can really be traced down to one freakish event, the docking of the Hermes that put Alciabedes to flight and left, gag, Nicias in charge. Absent that, I've little doubt the Sicilian Campaign would have come off splendidly.
Tom, that's a very good point. The superstitious Nicias was indeed a poor leader. And the Athenian predilection for persecuting their own generals did not help, and in fact sealed the city-state's doom at war's end.
I fear that people of all ages and countries trying to rationalise our concerns and retorts.
"Once the negotiations have begun, neither the Virgin nor the Fortress will stand"
Exactly. The West seems to have an unfortunate inclination toward giving away freely that which was won by blood, sweat, and tears. It's hardly a plan for maintaining a civilization, but naturally socialists and communists want to negotiate away the West's birthright as they believe that will bring us ever closer to their ephemeral earthly utopia.
A new post will be up at midnight, just so you know.
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