If a people cannot avoid continuous internal warfare, they will have a new order imposed from without. As the fifth century wore on, leading to the final disappearance of Roman governance in Western Europe, Roman armies continued their long suffering tradition of proclaiming their generals Emperor. While vast portions of Europe and North Africa were [...]
Appeasement of a ruthless outside power always invites aggression. Treaties made with ruthless despots are always fruitless and dangerous. Prior to the ultimate conquest of the Greek mainland in 338, Greek allies, Thebes and Athens, negotiated the Peace of Philocrates with Philip II of Macedon. This gave him their acquiescence to the capture and enslavement [...]
In battle, free men almost always defeat slaves. (Herodotus’ Law) In 450 BC, Herodotus completed his Histories of the great war between the Greeks and Persians. (It is from his work that we know the details surrounding the battle of Thermopylae popularized in the film, 500). Herodotus, considered the first Western historian, attempted to understand [...]
One of the lesser understood phenomenon of history is that small ruthless bands of thugs will inevitably take over vastly larger docile civilizations, the operative words being ruthless and civilized. The civilized are those among us who feel that they have too much to lose and are therefore always willing to deal. The ruthless thugs [...]
No nation has ever survived once its citizenry ceased to believe its culture worth saving. (Hanson’s Law) In Professor Hanson’s essay, War Will Be War, which became the genesis for this book and was the inspiration for this immutable law, he wrote: “Themistocles’ Athens beat back hundreds of thousands of Persians; yet little more than [...]
The following is excerpted from my forthcoming book on the Lessons from Fallen Civilizations. In AD 450s the Roman Empire’s sovereignty over Western Europe had shriveled to just a few provinces in central Italy and southern Gaul. Two decades earlier, Germanic invaders, Vandals, who controlled all Iberia (today’s Spain and Portugal) were led by a [...]
Congress now piously debates an amnesty bill, U.S. cities brace for more marches promoted by Spanish-language radio stations, and Marxists and anarchists wish to see more and more illegals have a claim on your family assets. It’s chilling to remember that it was our ancestors’ embrace of amnesty that served to bring down the Western [...]
DUBAI (AFP) – Osama bin Laden (OBL) attempted to communicate with Al-Qaeda’s front man in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, through a letter that was seized when a ground courier in Pakistan was intercepted. A US counter-terrorism official said in Washington last month that OBL had suggested to Zarqawi that he get [...]
Choosing Sides in America’s War on Terror se-di-tion n. 1. conduct or language inciting to rebellion… Not since the end Viet Nam conflict in the 1970s, have Americans witnessed, with some prominent exceptions, the majority of U.S. news organizations actively and openly attempting to undermine a U.S. war effort. As embedded Iraq war correspondent, Oliver [...]
For those of us in California who fear we may be losing the culture that was handed down to us from the Enlightenment of Hobbes, Locke, and Smith and of course, our founders, men such as Jefferson and Madison, the rise of Cruz Bustamante may bear some alarming parallels to the career of the fifth [...]
