Tuesday - September 09, 2003
The Next Peloponnesian War (Between the United States and Europe)
The Peloponnesian War was an epic struggle among
the Greeks, sort of a cross between a world war and a civil war. It was one of
the most tragic wastes of life, money, and power ever witnessed in ancient
civilization. The Greeks had succeeded in establishing the most successful large
democratic societies to exist. Their government allowed freedom and equality to
an extent never before allowed in recorded history. Yes, they had slaves, and
other segments of society were not given full franchisement or rights and some
city states were nothing less than what we would today call fascist militarism,
but for the times their emphasis on individual rights was
unparalleled.
In a loose parallel, we
can equate the Greeks of the Greek peninsula, with what we're seeing now in
Western Civilization: Europe and the New World. Europe and the United States,
playing the roles of Athens and Sparta, are peoples who once were united but now
inexplicably seem to be more concerned with exerting power over each other
rather than completing the establishment of their role as the dominant
civilizing influence over the world.
In the mid fifth century before the Christian
era, the biggest world power (excepting perhaps China) was rooted in the cradle
of civilization, the Persian Empire, or as the Greeks often erroneously called
them, the Medes. The Medes were ruled by the Great King who had taken control of
Greek city states in Anatolia and the along the coast of the Black Sea. The
mainland Greeks had a sense of identity with their cultural and ethnic kin in
these areas, indeed many of those city states were considered colonies. After
the Great King recognized that the mainland Greeks were agitating to wrest his
control from these "medized" states, he decided to put the rest of Greece under
his heel as well. Two invasions were made, both ending in improbable and
embarrassing defeats of the Persians by a united Helenistic league. The battles
of Thermopylae, Marathon, and Salamis resound through history as some of the
greatest victories for western civilization. They were possible only because
nearly all of the city states, principally Athens and Sparta, united to
overthrow the Medes.
But the
unfortunate reality is that after these fantastic successes, the Greeks failed
to remain united. In the absence of a threat to them all, they struggled to
become each dominant over the other. Blind ambition, arrogant pride, and all the
other foibles of human nature combined to deny the Greeks what they could have
attained. It's a classic case of the best losing because they were the best.
Athens and Sparta fought for decades to try to dominate all the Helenes, even as
far as Syracuse on the island of Sicily. They tore each other to shreds,
encouraged by the Persians who learned to stop invading and to invest instead:
The Persians sent money to whichever side was losing in an effort to prolong the
war.
In the end, no one won. Even the
Persians soon found themselves being invaded by mercenary Greeks, who had become
the best trained military in the world due to their unique culture and because
of their advancements in military tactics and armament. The Persian Empire was
dying and was barely holding on to its own existence. Even then, they continued
to play the Greeks off on each
other.
Finally, the Macedonians stepped
in and conquered their Greek cousins to the south, and Alexander the Macedonian
conquered most of the world between China and Greece. But he died too soon
leaving a power vacuum that allowed the Romans, flush from amazing victories
over Carthage to finally, decisively control the entire Mediterranian littorals
and most of Persia.
Okay, I had too
much fun relating the history. How does any of this relate to the US and Europe?
The Greeks, who were potentially the pre-eminent military power of the world,
failed to unite and instead fought for dominance among themselves -- causing
them to be subjugated by others in the end. Their glory was relatively
brief.
So here we are, fresh after the
end of two world wars. We have destroyed the hun, and emasculated the bear. Why,
then, are we at odds with our former allies in Europe? Why are they seemingly
hell bent on embarrassing the US?
It's
just human nature. As Thucydides said in the Melian dialog, "Of men we know and
of the gods we suspect, that they will rule whenever they can." If we continue
on this path, the European Union will become a dangerous rival. They will soon
have a military power that might rival our own if they wish and can summon the
will to do so.
So how do we stop this?
Human nature teaches us that we will not unite without a mutual threat. So we
must dominate them one way or another, or become dominated ourselves. A military
solution would be disastrous. Instead we must continue to use politics to divide
them, play havoc with their internal alliances. Rather than be like Athens and
Sparta, we should play the role of the Persians and play the Europeans off of
each other.
This is necessary. It is
not a malicious act, it is a required act. The more we can prevent bloodshed by
playing the United Kingdom and Spain in political opposition to Germany and
France, and teach Poland and the Czechs to trust and depend on us instead of
them, the better it will be for the future of
humanity.
History has taught us that all
civilizations crumble, but this is not necessarily inevitable. Entropy conquers
all, or so science tells us, but with the application of intelligence, by using
the opposite of entropy, man's mind, we can extend peace and prosperity
indefinitely. The Roman Empire lasted for centuries, we can last for millenia if
we're smart about it. We must not allow the petty bickering of friends and the
power struggles of allies to develop into the destruction of civilization. There
is no Rome to save us, we are the final arbiter of peace and stability. The
world is at stake. We must, using intelligence and the protection of individual
freedoms, maintain peaceful civilization.
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