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If only the Romans...
Topic Started: Nov 27 2006, 12:00 PM (134 Views)
Jolly
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Geaux Tigers!
...had been as good as the Americans.

Food for thought....

http://www.thenewatlantis.com/archive/14/boot.htm
The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States.- George Soros
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Kincaid
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HOLY CARP!!!
A troubling theme from the article:


Quote:
 
But in the final analysis, having the best technology is not enough to defeat the most committed terrorists armed with the deadliest weapons. Some of the most expensive weapons systems being purchased by the United States and its allies are irrelevant to fighting and winning the war against terrorism. And the combination of moral restraint and bureaucratic sluggishness that defines America’s military culture may leave the U.S. at a comparative disadvantage against nimble, networked, nihilistic enemies like al Qaeda, who will deploy whatever weapons they have with urgent brutality. To deal with the essential paradox of the information age—that the march of advanced technology may decrease our security in some areas while increasing it in others—we need not just better machines but also the right organizations, training, and leadership to take advantage of them. That’s where the U.S. has lagged badly behind; its industrial-age military bureaucracy remains configured primarily for fighting other conventional militaries, rather than the terrorist foes we increasingly confront. Changing the culture and structure of our armed forces—to say nothing of the CIA or State Department—is a far more daunting task than simply figuring out which weapons systems to buy. Yet even if we rise to that bureaucratic and political challenge, there will likely be times, tragically, when our military supremacy is no match for the technology-enhanced savagery of our inferior enemies.


A tiger can have a difficult time defeating a mosquito.
Kincaid - disgusted Republican Partisan since 2006.
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The 89th Key
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Kinda like 'Nam.

Kinda hard when women and children might be strapped with bombs.
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Jolly
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Geaux Tigers!
Then ask yourself a question...Why were the British so successful in the 1700-1899 time frame? Why were the Romans so successful in their time? How did the Khan conquer and rule much of Asia?
The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States.- George Soros
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George K
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Finally
Jolly
Nov 27 2006, 05:00 PM
Why were the British so successful in the 1700-1899 time frame? Why were the Romans so successful in their time? How did the Khan conquer and rule much of Asia?

Fear.
A guide to GKSR: Click

"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... "
- Mik, 6/14/08


Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles.
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ivorythumper
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I am so adjective that I verb nouns!
Jolly
Nov 27 2006, 04:00 PM
Why were the Romans so successful in their time?

The Romans were successful because they enculturated their foes. When they besieged an enemy, they had religious ceremony called the invocatio, during which they invited the enemies' gods to come to Rome where they would be worshipped. (The notion of some sort of invocatio can be seen in the story of the fall of Jericho in the Bible).

Once the enemy's god agreed, the city's defences could no longer stand since it's protection departed. The god was accorded a temple in Roman, and the vanquished people were accorded Roman citizenship. Everyone won, and the Roman's were able to spread a vast and relatively stable empire.

It is interesting that the Jews never took up the offer, hence Palestine remained a second class backwater under the thumb of the Romans.

For the syncretic Romans, it was just business -- a sort of "spiritual economy".
The dogma lives loudly within me.
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