Pirates of the Mediterranean (NYT)

[cool user name]

IN the autumn of 68 B.C. the world’s only military superpower was dealt a profound psychological blow by a daring terrorist attack on its very heart. Rome’s port at Ostia was set on fire, the consular war fleet destroyed, and two prominent senators, together with their bodyguards and staff, kidnapped.

The incident, dramatic though it was, has not attracted much attention from modern historians. But history is mutable. An event that was merely a footnote five years ago has now, in our post-9/11 world, assumed a fresh and ominous significance. For in the panicky aftermath of the attack, the Roman people made decisions that set them on the path to the destruction of their Constitution, their democracy and their liberty. One cannot help wondering if history is repeating itself.

Consider the parallels. The perpetrators of this spectacular assault were not in the pay of any foreign power: no nation would have dared to attack Rome so provocatively. They were, rather, the disaffected of the earth: “The ruined men of all nations,” in the words of the great 19th-century German historian Theodor Mommsen, “a piratical state with a peculiar esprit de corps.”

Like Al Qaeda, these pirates were loosely organized, but able to spread a disproportionate amount of fear among citizens who had believed themselves immune from attack. To quote Mommsen again: “The Latin husbandman, the traveler on the Appian highway, the genteel bathing visitor at the terrestrial paradise of Baiae were no longer secure of their property or their life for a single moment.”

What was to be done? Over the preceding centuries, the Constitution of ancient Rome had developed an intricate series of checks and balances intended to prevent the concentration of power in the hands of a single individual.

More at link:

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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/30/opinion/30harris.html?ex=1160366400&en=379e62c9993ca0cc&ei=5070&emc=eta1
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[rpannier]

1. disturbing and enlightening

thanks

[cool user name]

2. It's all about history repeating itself.

[Jose Diablo]

3. History is repeating due to the inherant weaknesses in

republic form of governance. You can see it in the symbols of the republic laid at it's founding. This country isn't democratic per sey, it's a representative republic. In a republic form of government, the representatives can be turned by special interests to represent them at the expence of everyone else.

Saying "The people" caused this in Roman history is a cop out for the "weak" representatives. I'm not accepting responsibility for some weak Chambliss, just because the powers to be managed to steal the election for him by manipulating the voting machines. Our agents of the government are not representatives of "The People" just like in ancient Rome, those representatives didn't represent "The people".

Same thing playing out as the inherant weak point in a republic. Power corrupts, it's human weakness at it's core. The nature of the beast.

And if we examine the conduct of our government over time, we see it as a empire, modeled on Rome. Consuming ever larger parts of the world, because that was the dreams of the founders, more power for themselves.

I see no reason to rah-rah America. I've woke from the nightmare dream placed on us. We the people should change this government to better represent our interests.

[cool user name]

9. I definitely agree with that.

[On the Road]

4. Wow -- Look Where Ostia Is:

It's the red star on the coast right next to Rome. No wonder they freaked out. Pirates had a way of doing that.

Unfortunately, the best way to get of pirates is the worst way to try to get rid of terrorists -- at least the kind we're seeing now.

[beyurslf]

5. Frightening to see history repeat itself

[originalpckelly]

6. Does history have to repeat itself?

Are we so weak that this march of fate cannot be stopped? No, we only need to teach America how to overcome fear, the only true enemy in the War on Terror.

[Malikshah]

7. Please-- it may help folks to know that Roman Historians

to a man tended to explain the creation/expansion of the Roman Empire as being Defensive vs. Expansionist/Offensive.

Must fight the Carthaginians over there before we have to fight them here....

We must LIBERATE those poor Greeks from those nasty icky Macedonians...

Terrorist?? Please.

Rome can suck it.

[badgerpup]

8. You'll also see/hear the word 'hegemony' come up...

and the Republicans...and sadly a lot of the Dems too, think it's a Good Thing.
Quick and dirty Reader's Digest version on Why Not...
It's too damn BIG.
Maintaining the ever-increasing borders takes all the available resources and then some.
The infrastructure (that's schools, roads, hospitals, social programs ) is sacrificed to the need for border maintenance (are we starting to see a pattern here, people?) and the system eventually collapses from within.

The very, very wealthy and the very, very dead won't have too many problems with this...but most of the rest of us will.