rock and roll part 2
Callback to “Family Security Matters” and “Julius Caesar Option”…
so many problems in that article. First, Caesar did not conquer gaul by simple massacre, he did it through careful and astute application of force and by playing the various political heads in gaul against each other. Also, he successfully sold the notion that it is better to be a subordinate in a roman hegemony than a free and independent subject of the traditional gallic tribal system. Caesar did not empty gaul of gauls and fill it with romans.
the rest of that article…nuking iraqis into submission, filling iraq with americans, Bush as president for life…how can any of it be taken seriously?
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I don’t see it happening…but given the magnitude of ‘hidden crimes’ committed by various Bush II admin folk and those associated with them, I have no difficulty envisioning certain of those people wishing it could happen – because otherwise they are looking at legal nightmares and/or possible extended imprisonment.
As to nuking Iraq…from what I’ve read, and according to a couple of Iraq vets I’ve talked to, there is a ‘strong minority’ of US troops there who would probably find that option acceptable.
Bit I remember from the week after Bush I lost his re-election bid: when it became certain that the election was lost, the shredding machines fired up in the DOJ(?) building. Normally, they ran only a couple times a week. This time, though, they were going nonstop, 24/7 for most of two weeks – something that was remarked as ‘unprecedented’. So…what was so critical that it could not pass into the hands of the next adminstration?
Maybe this was part of it…
… there used to be a sort of ‘informal reference library’ at the whitehouse, started in the Carter Adminstration. When Reagan took over, the Carter bunch simply said ‘here it is, you’ll need it’. Same thing when Bush I’s bunch took over from Reagans bunch. When Clintons crew arrived, though…there was nothing there but empty shelves
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Even if you could find enough Americans willing to live in a pre or post nuked Iraq, surrounded by the neighbors it would still have, how that could “boost American prestiege (sic)” is beyond me. Our temporary presence (and the permanent one by Israelis) sure hasn’t worked.
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Caesar’s problem with Gaul came about because the Gauls would not honor their contracts; Rome would conquer some one of these smaller tribal collections and sign the customary Roman “we done kicked hell out of you so now you sign a contract with Rome to that effect”. After five times (or thereabouts) of beating one of the tribal groups, “Big Julie” finally had enough of this particular group and cut off their left arms (at the left wrist position and as Caesar explained that while this rendered them incapable of going to war with anyone because they could not hold a shield as a defense, it did not interfere with them working at their trade. These “no left handed ex soldiers were forced to march with one Legion or the other to whatever battlefield chosen as an object lesson to anyone else who dared resist Rome.
BTW Julius was bald as a cue-ball but his troops still called him Caesar. in Latin, Caesar translates out (I’m told) as “a fine head of hair”.