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 being overrun by Germanic invaders, Roman armies continued to fight civil wars headed by challengers to the throne, “usurpers” who would be Emperor. By contrast, the Greek speaking Roman Empire of the East, based in Constantinople, enjoyed an orderly succession of Emperors and managed to survive for nearly a millennium longer than did the West.
Soon after President Obama was inaugurated, while the US was conducting conventional war in two theaters, Iraq and Afghanistan, and countless other clashes by American clandestine services, he directed his Attorney General to open criminal investigations against members of the previous administration. These investigations were aimed at senior officials within the Bush (GW) administration who had been tasked with drawing up the guidelines for the interrogation of captured terrorists. The launch of these investigations did not result in actual civil war. Yet it was unprecedented for an American president to signal, during wartime, that he was prepared to criminalize his domestic political enemies and at the same time offer up a propaganda bonanza to the country’s real enemy, resurgent militant Islam.
Law #1: No nation has ever survived once its citizenry ceased to believe its culture worth saving. (Hanson’s Law)
Law #2: In battle, free men almost always defeat slaves. (Herodotus’ Law)
Law #3: Appeasement of a ruthless outside power always invites aggression. Treaties made with ruthless despots are always fruitless and dangerous.
Law #5: When a free people, through taxation, is deprived of its ability to acquire wealth and property, collapse is presaged.
Law #6: To hold territory, a state must be populated by those loyal to the central authority. When immigration overwhelms assimilation, the fall is predicted.
Law #7: With the loss of fiscal solvency comes a loss of sovereignty.
Law #8: Debasing the currency always destabilizes the governing authority.
Law #9: When a civilization accepts the propaganda of its enemy as truth, it has reached the far side of appeasement and capitulation is nigh.
Law #10: Declining civilizations will always face superior firepower from ascending civilizations because sovereignty is only temporarily uncontested.
