It has been almost 25 years –completed not long after the Vietnam fiasco- since Yale professor Paul Kennedy published his remarkable study, THE RISE AND FALL OF THE GREAT POWERS. It’s based on an exhaustive compilation of facts and in-depth analysis of the experiences of history’s imperial nations, touching upon Ancient Rome and ending with contemporary America. The enormous research the work entailed pointed to a simple truism: conquering numerous other nations and then controlling them to extract benefits inevitably becomes so costly that the conqueror’s wealth and resources become overwhelmed.

History is clear in its record. Because of Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere, we can see those results ourselves- massive unemployment, a contracting economy and military expenditures so stupendous that no one in government seems to know exactly what they are. Nonetheless, conquering nations tend to keep their military machines purring along, long after glimmers of reality set in. Reasons? A couple of them. Some in every country’s establishment throughout history grow rich from wars, and wars feed the national ego. We call it exceptionalism.

Obfuscating slogans are always readily at hand: the arrogant ‘I am a citizen of Rome’, ‘the White Man’s burden’, and, of course, ‘bringing freedom and democracy’. But, to look at some disturbing examples in history, Rome, like us, was once a republic, then a dictatorship. During its second incarnation, it was sold at auction (A.D 193) – the whole kit and caboodle – to a local billionaire, Didius Julianus. Of course, that quickly led to his assassination. Today, America’s billionaires (the charitable Warren Buffet and Bill Gates the exceptions) spread millions in ‘campaign contributions’ around Congress to bring about votes that send billions to beneficiary nations like Israel and Karzai’s Afghanistan.

According to Kennedy, imperial wars always come to be fought by mercenaries. In Rome, they were their former invaders – Goth, Huns and Vandals. In today’s America, often impoverish nineteen and twenty-year olds who have been afforded little access to good education and stranded in a technically demanding age, serve that purpose. Never to be forgotten of course, are the lavishly-paid (taxpayer funds) and trigger-happy minions of Blackwater as well!

Although our access to news –now provided almost exclusively by ‘embedded’ reporters and government-paid ‘experts’ on television- is more restricted than at any other time in America, history can still illuminate the way forward.

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