In his prescient article, The Road to Babylon (http://www.harpers.org/RoadToBabylon.html?pg=1) Lewis Lapham, editor of Harper's, cited this speech, ca. 500 b.c., as a parallel compelling reason for the US to avoid invading Iraq...:
It is senseless to go against people who, even if conquered, could not be controlled, while failure would leave us much worse off than we were before we made the attempt. . . . [T]he next best thing is to make a demonstration of our power and then, after a short time, go away again. We all know that what is most admired is what is farthest off and least liable to have its reputation put to the test. . . . The right thing is that we should spend our new gains at home and on ourselves instead of on these exiles who are begging for assistance and whose interest it is to tell lies and make us believe them, who have nothing to contribute themselves except speeches, who leave all the danger to others and, if they are successful, will not be properly grateful, while if they fail in any way they will involve their friends in their own ruin. (Exactly what Israel is doing to the US)
Instead of listening to reason: The argument fails to make an impression. So excessive is the enthusiasm of the majority, says Thucydides, "that the few who actually were opposed to the expedition were afraid of being thought unpatriotic if they voted against it, and therefore kept quiet." The assembly declares for war, and over the next several months Athens musters an invasion fleet conforming to the current Pentagon doctrine of "overwhelming force" (134 triremes, expensively gilded; impressive numbers of archers, slingers, and javelin throwers; merchant vessels stocked with soothsayers and cavalry horses), and on a sunny day in July 415 b.c., trumpets blow, priests pour wine into golden bowls, and "by far the most costly and splendid" expedition "ever sent out by a single city" sails to its appointment with destruction.
2,500 years ago, the Greeks who pushed for their war were as short-sighted and almost as stupid as Bush. The country was undone. And the scenario described above has played out exactly in the US today. We are lost under Bush. We are destroyed because of the alliance with the Israel curs. |
