Posted on 03/18/2007 9:32:41 AM PDT by freedom44
While accurate, this statement is incomplete. The Arabs took just as much from Christian Byzantine civilization as they did from Persia.
Hell,I was just quoting someone else.I assumed it was his farewell speech without even looking.In either case,the 14th amendment makes it all moot.
I've been reading Scott v. Sanford.I once saw a quote from Sam Adams,who was disgusted at the idea that the preamble of the constitution mentioned "we the people" instead of something like "we,the representatives in congress assembled".I have not been able to find this quote.But the sentiment expressed was that the states were the citizens of the new country.In the beginning,the people only elected house members.Now,with the 17th amendment,and the push to eliminate the Electoral College,direct democracy threatens us all.
Ah,
Chalmers Johnson.
I have that book in my collection, and I've read it cover to cover. It would be difficult to say that it isn't useful, to some degree. But, I found it to be too ignorant of necessity regarding the protection, and projection, of American power. I know the man is smart, but that don't mean he's right.
My other issue with his relatively new found distrust of America, is the timing. Copyright 2000. Just about the time the rest of the elite CIA dolts were setting us up for a media fall, or should I say, setting Bush up.
It's not hard to see which side Chalmers comes down on.
Can we copy this feat by killing Imadinnerjacket when he comes to America in May?
The difference is, the Greeks were defending their homeland against an expansionist empire's war of aggression.
About 1,900 years later, the "same" expansionist hordes made it all the way to Vienna--and then again, 150 years after that.
Custer was on the expansionist side; ignored orders; and was seeking personal glory at any cost. The other main difference is that in the case of the Greeks, the odds were about the same as the odds against Custer; and, the Greeks followed orders and achieved their objective, though it cost them all their lives.
A better analogy would be Roland commanding the rear guard at Roncevalles.
Or, would you prefer an Arabic speaking Europe farting at God 5 times a day; and without any Hellenic & Roman influences?
The Spartans were not even targets of Persia's attack, until they violated a universal protocol by killing a Persian messenger who Herodotus claims was asking for Sparta's submission but in reality was probably sent by Persia's king, Xerxes to convey the same message America sent to the entire world after 9/11: "you're either with us, or against us."Rubbish. The Persian King sent emissaries to the Greeks, demanding water and earth symbolic of submission to him. They killed the emissaries, and eventually the imperialist himself was defeated and humiliated. The Persian empire was merely a would-be conquering power.
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The best way present day Iranians could redeem the reputation of Iranians of all past and present regimes would be to overthrow the mad Mullahs and their madman president, hang the whole gang from streetlight posts the way the Italians hung Mussolini, and then renounce the demon-worshipping Islamic religion and join the 21st century world.
Until recently I thought the Iranian people would finally get fed up with having the maroons who run the joint put them at risk of nuclear annihilation by threatening to nuke Israel and the western nations, but now I'm not at all sure that will happen. We're just wasting precious time while the feckless UN diplomats timidly threaten Ahinaminadadabbabbado and the Mullahs with economic reprisals if they blow up the planet and kill all of it's inhabitants. Yeah, a threat like that will surely stop a gang of suicidal maniacs from carrying out their planned Götterdämmerung, right?
Once the nuclear genie is out of the Iranian bottle it's gonna be mushroom cloud-time for every westerner and Israeli within missile range of Iran. Am I the only one who sees that as a distinct possibility?
Kwok Ting Lee
300 Spartans
Published10 March 2007, 11:15 PM
http://81ideas.com/archive/entries/2007/03/10/300-spartans/
"The emissaries of Persia asked for 'earth and water' from the Greek cities as a token of their submission. This was not merely unpalatable news. This was a challenge to the independence of the Greek city-states. The Spartan response was to throw the Persian emissary into a well, while the Athenians tossed theirs into a pit, taunting them to get the water and earth themselves. This was an act calculated to show the Persians the depths of Spartan and Athenian resistance."
Actually the Islamic backlash is caused by the Leftist in the US exporting their anti-God pro-abortioin BS onto the Islamic nations and they are fighting it with more fervor then we here at home.
The point was that the US was unprecidented in history. Although, now, things are looking a might familiar...
Pull your panties out of your butt and lighten up, Mr. Kar, it's just a freakin' movie for entertainment already!
Birds of a different feather.
The "expansionist hordes" who were repulsed at the gates of Vienna twice were Muslim Turks. The ancient Persians who invaded the Grecian city states were neither Muslim nor Turks.
The only correlation I see is that both invaders came from the general area of what was then called Asia, which we now call the middle east, and both were hell-bent on conquering western civilization and occupying it's territory. IIRC my history lessons of half a century ago, and I may not, the Persians won in the short term but lost to the Greeks in the long run, and the Turks failed at both attempts to overrun central Europe.
But now over three centuries after that last invasion was turned back, the descendants of Suleiman's army are overrunning and occupying all of Europe by means of relatively peaceful tactics instead of cavalry charges and seiges. So the $64 question now is, who is very close to winning this five century-long war in the long run?
And it bears a striking similarity to a Declaration written on behalf of the Low Countries, written more than a century earlier.
It was translated into English in the movie.
I'll go one better. The rumblings of empire began with Wilson's interventionism. Your post is absolutely true. It may not be in the mercantilistic version of Great Britain but history will see it as a version of empire.
it's worse than you think!
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