Hello Derf,
sorry, but you aren't going back far enough in history. i have
found this in my recent researches....
the third punic war's causes have been listed as this, by a
roman historian writing in the 1st century AD...
the carthigenians had possession of ships, in violation of the
treaty (of the second punic war). they had attacked the
numidians, (in violation of the treaty). the romans made them
give up thier "unlawful" weapons, and destroyed them before the
citizens of carthage. they asked them to tear down their walls,
and for all the leading citizens to leave the city, (go into
exile). when they refused this, they "chose" war instead of
suffering such humiliation, and fought to the bitter end,
including women and children.
replace ships, with weapons off mass destruction, numidians
with kuwait, and it is almost EXACTLY the USA vs IRAQ.
the "rants" of GW BUSH against IRAQ leading up the war are
almost word for word the same as those used by CATO the elder
against CARTHAGE. ............ ....
the romans didn't exactly seek empire, they had it thrust upon
them, as have we. .. the roman constitution was ill suited to
running an empire, as is ours. .. .... .... we need to keep in
mind the reasons of THEIR failure of republic, and decent into
a "kingship" (emporer) and be on gaurd for ourselves. ...
the framers of OUR constitution had an intimate knowledge of
all this, and got their ideas of a three part government from
CICERO, a politician of the late republic, who got some of HIS
ideas from CARTHAGE itself. ....... ..
if we choose to be ignorant of the lessons of history, we are
DOOMED to repeat them.
--
Best regards,
Bill mailto:pythias@pacifier.com
"66 Sprite
/// unsubscribe/change address requests to majordomo@autox.team.net or try
/// http://www.team.net/mailman/listinfo
/// Archives at http://www.team.net/archive/spridgets
|