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Notable Historical Examples of a Governing Authority Engaging in an Ill-Advised Foreign War and, upon Failing, Facing Rebellion and Civil War, Resulting in Repression and Loss of Civil Rights at Home
History | 03/18/2026 | CharlesOconnell

Posted on 03/18/2026 8:30:32 AM PDT by CharlesOConnell

History offers a recurring pattern that conventional history tends not to recognize: governments overreach abroad, miscalculate badly, and the resulting strain — financial, political, and psychological — comes home to roost in the form of unrest, rebellion, or outright civil war. The public is usually fed lofty justifications at the outset, but in the aftermath, real consequences expose hidden, deeper structural weaknesses.

France in the late 18th century. The monarchy’s heavy involvement in foreign wars—most notably the Seven Years’ War and then the expensive intervention in the American Revolution—left the country financially crippled. While the American venture is celebrated as a triumph in standard accounts, the reality is that it drained the treasury beyond recovery. The regime tried to paper over the crisis with debt and half-measures, but the fiscal collapse directly triggered the French Revolution. Foreign adventurism didn’t just weaken the state; it exposed its insolvency and incompetence.

Tsarist Russia in World War I. The war effort was catastrophically mismanaged, with massive casualties and logistical failures. The official line emphasized patriotism and necessity, but the reality was a regime hopelessly out of its depth. The strain of the war accelerated internal collapse, leading first to the February Revolution and then the Bolshevik takeover. The foreign war didn’t just coincide with revolution—it made it inevitable.

Argentina’s junta in 1982, which launched the Falklands War. The leadership clearly believed a quick, symbolic victory would consolidate domestic power. Instead, the defeat shattered the regime’s credibility almost overnight. Public anger surged, and the military dictatorship quickly unraveled. Here the causal chain is almost too obvious: a failed foreign gamble destroyed what little legitimacy remained.

Imperial Germany after World War I. The leadership pursued a massive war under assumptions of quick victory. When defeat came, it triggered revolution in 1918, the fall of the Kaiser, and years of instability that culminated in further upheaval. The “stab-in-the-back” myth that followed was itself a kind of narrative management—an attempt to deflect blame for a failed foreign war that had already detonated the domestic order.

Across these cases, the common thread is not just failure abroad, but the exposure of underlying fragility at home. Foreign wars act as stress tests. When regimes are weaker than they appear — and they often are — the result is not just defeat overseas, but rupture domestically.


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: cartersfolly; carterslegacy; civil; iranlongoverdue; irannotilladvised; multiplenicks; nevertrumpkywrdtroll; randspam; revolution; tds; war
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During the Viet Nam war, it appears a government agency supplied a mind-altering drug to students, to provoke them into acting out, to discredit them in the eyes of the non-student population, to defuse any meaningful anti-war activity. The agency didn't originate the drug, but became its primary experimental user. The drug had been extensively tested in an attempt to produce a truth serum, but the effort failed. But it was useful for fostering disorientation and breakdown.

The chemist who mastered production of the drug was an agency employee; he became a notorious or legendary counter-cultural figure, as he supplied the drug to young people. The students' most famous musical group, was staffed by the children of agency employees. In a documentary "Berkeley in the 1960s", opening scenes show free-speech students wearing suits and ties, being hosed down by police from administration headquarters steps. Soon the familiar "psychedelic" culture of drugs, sex and rock-and-roll became familiar in the news. At the Woodstock festival, attendees copulated in the mud. The objective was accomplished, that, despite the majority's uncertainty about the conduct of the war, the President declined to run, the party in power was defeated, in Nixon's second election he won a 49 state majority.

1 posted on 03/18/2026 8:30:32 AM PDT by CharlesOConnell
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To: CharlesOConnell

Have you been been tasting the Orange Barrel?


2 posted on 03/18/2026 8:37:54 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is opinion or satire. Or both.)
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To: CharlesOConnell

If this Iranian confict ends in failure ( the Iranian regime survives and the enriched uranium is not secured) then indeed it will be the American nation that will suffer greatly.The demonic, lunatic Democrats will ride the backlash into power in 2026 and 2028.Great and possiblt irreparable harm will come to the American nation and its people. It will be similar to the way the Communists came to power in Russia and the Nazis came to power in Germany after WW I. History does indeed teach human social realities. It is also true those that fail to understand it are doomed to repeat it.


3 posted on 03/18/2026 8:41:12 AM PDT by allendale
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To: CharlesOConnell

False analogies ignoring all the domestic conditions and variables, making each case a different case.

These type of articles are like “science” articles using correlation as causation.


4 posted on 03/18/2026 8:43:55 AM PDT by Wuli ( )
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To: CharlesOConnell

Across these cases, the common thread is not just failure abroad, but the exposure of underlying fragility at home. Foreign wars act as stress tests. When regimes are weaker than they appear — and they often are — the result is not just defeat overseas, but rupture domestically.


yep, a test. What is the purpose of a test?

To reveal the truth and our resolve. The test is still in process.


5 posted on 03/18/2026 8:46:57 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued, but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere)
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To: CharlesOConnell
During the Viet Nam war, it appears a government agency supplied a mind-altering drug to students, to provoke them into acting out, to discredit them in the eyes of the non-student population, to defuse any meaningful anti-war activity.

And you have apparently been indulging in such drugs ever since according to the AI generated slop you dump on this site.

6 posted on 03/18/2026 8:48:38 AM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (The tree accused of killed Sonny Bono was planted.)
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To: CharlesOConnell

Your entire article is based on a false assumption — that of overreach and an ill advised war. What makes this an ill advised war? The media says it, the democrats say it, European allies didn’t participate or ??? None of those has the credibility or standing to determine if it is ill advised. What is ill advised is the decades of appeasing and placating the biggest sponsor of world terrorism because those mentioned (plus US presidents) were afraid or for some other reason, to confront Iran. Had this “ill advised” we not taken place then we would eventually be faced with a nuclear Iran whose mullahs wouldn’t hesitate to continue to expand their terrorism and if need be when challenged, use their nukes. If you doubt that, look at what they have done to their own people recently. Their religion or ideology (whatever you want to call it) removes the restraints of using nukes that most normal people/governments have.


7 posted on 03/18/2026 9:09:16 AM PDT by falcon99 ( )
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To: CharlesOConnell

The examples given are three monarchies and a military dictatorship. All autocratic states. If we get a revolution it will be against the Democrats.


8 posted on 03/18/2026 9:37:11 AM PDT by webheart (Notice how I said all of that without any hyphens, and only complete words?)
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To: CharlesOConnell
During the Viet Nam war, it appears a government agency supplied a mind-altering drug to students, to provoke them into acting out, to discredit them in the eyes of the non-student population, to defuse any meaningful anti-war activity.

Where in the hell did you get that load of horse s**t? I was in college in the 60s, and the guys who wanted drugs generally were not anti Vietnam types. They were just losers. The war protesters were mostly suburban ass holes who didn’t want to get drafted. Once the draft was gone they didn’t give a crap one way or another about the war.

9 posted on 03/18/2026 10:02:02 AM PDT by Ditto
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To: BenLurkin

Sounds like this guy has gone insane.


10 posted on 03/18/2026 10:24:05 AM PDT by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: CharlesOConnell

PERFECT EXAMPLE:

Iran.

They miscalculated not American resolve, but Trump resolve.


11 posted on 03/18/2026 10:29:34 AM PDT by If You Want It Fixed - Fix It
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To: ifinnegan

Sounds like the left is casting around for an excuse to start a civil war.


12 posted on 03/18/2026 10:30:14 AM PDT by 556x45
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To: CharlesOConnell
I'll bet history provides just the opposite results as well.

So, while you provide the negatives, why don't you now provide the poositives?

Or are you only interested in providing the negative argument?

WWI & WWII are two fine exampples of the poitives, BTW.

They too were met with resistance by a good portion of the citizens.

Can you imagine how the world would have looked if we had stood by and allowed evil to defeat good?

13 posted on 03/18/2026 10:53:02 AM PDT by Robert DeLong
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To: CharlesOConnell

For all practical purposes it is over. Iran lost. Explain to me how they can now come back and win?

Sounds like Hitler hoping for a Prussian miracle like Frederick the Great had. No. The Mullah regime is done baking and completely cooked.


14 posted on 03/18/2026 11:15:55 AM PDT by Alas Babylon! (Conservatives can't afford to sit out. Vote like your freedom depends on it, it does!)
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To: CharlesOConnell

Ha! So are you trying to say a Chinese assault on the Island Nation of Taiwan would be a mistake? It would be stupid to claim this is about Iran...


15 posted on 03/18/2026 11:35:41 AM PDT by MichaelRDanger
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To: CharlesOConnell

You forgot Putin in Ukraine…


16 posted on 03/18/2026 12:16:33 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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