Well .. I'm sorry to destroy your "fantasy" .. but the Greeks losing is not the moral of the story. The movie is not a fantasy .. it actually happened. Victor Davis Hansen was a consultant on the movie.
In case you have never read anything about Greek history - then watch the History Channel - they have done an excellent job explaining the story .. and as far as I can tell, they have done a good job. I got to watch most of it last night .. and I'm hoping they will run the story again.
The REAL MORAL OF THE STORY IS: Is it worth sacrificing 300 of your best and brightest in order to SAVE YOUR NATION ..??
Greece ultimately DEFEATED THE PERSIANS .. and saved Greece as a nation; and saved that part of the region from becomming Muslim territory.
The liberals are whining because they see a correlation between this war and the current battle in Iraq. Has it been worth sacrificing over 3000 of our best and brightest to SAVE OUR NATION ..?? The answer is .. absolutely YES!
Persians were Zoroastrian not Muslim. Thanks for your genius analysis.
"In case you have never read anything about Greek history - then watch
the History Channel - they have done an excellent job explaining
the story .. and as far as I can tell, they have done a good job."
That is my general estimation. That documentary recreation did a good
job of giving the "back story" of why the Greeks and Persians found
themselves in that battle.
And it had good coverage of the naval battle going on at about the
same time.
It was interesting to hear the story of the future admiral that badgered
the Greeks into investing in more ships (like Churchill pleading for
more airplanes in the 1930s).
The show gets two re-airings on March 30.
http://www.history.com/shows.do?action=detail&episodeId=214233
Well... all this took place about 1000 years before the rise of Islam, and the Persian empire was not a religiously monotonous region. It had pretty much everything from the regions it touched, including Judaism.
There was no nation called Greece in 480 BC, there were only loosly affiliated city-states all of which in another fifty years would be at each other's throats.
And there were no Muslims involved. The Persians were Zoroastrians.
Greece ultimately DEFEATED THE PERSIANS .. and saved Greece as a nation; and saved that part of the region from becomming Muslim territory.
I'm sorry you are a little ahead in your time line, the battle of thermopaly tool place in 408 bc a good 900 year before Mohamed and Islam. The persians at that time were polytheistic.