Don't Follow the Romans

One of the best articles I have seen on the U.S. foreign policy is Michael Auslin's Don't Do As the Romans Did... [Politico, 9 Sept].  http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/09/obama-two-front-war-rome-110779.html#.VBhpBI1dXIM

If we look carefully at what has been going on around us, especially with ISIL and the Russians in Crimea, we can almost identify with the Romans.  In case you don't remember, they lost out to a horde of barbarians at their gates, and allies that abandoned them when they were most needed.  Nobody liked them. They were all looking out for themselves.  Rome was overextended, and underprepared for war, an occurrence brought about by internal disputes at home.  Auslin's point is a reminder of something else;  Leon Trotsky's fateful saying, "You may not be interested in war, but it is interested in you", a statement repeated by Rudolf Giulliani on Sept 11 2014.

I never forget 9-11, because on that one that allows us to say 9-11 and get the idea across, I was sitting in the parking lot waiting for my wife to get home.  She had to walk from the corridor of the Pentagon where the airplane had struck, to Crystal City to get a phone that would work - a landline - because the cell phones were jammed.  During that time, I didn't know if she was alive or dead. The plane hit the office where she was.   It didn't look good.  It took her 4 hours to get back after that, because the roads were jammed with cars.  I wonder how well we learned the lessons of that day.

Everyone converts to cell phones and cuts their landlines.  Cities don't plan for the disasters that this kind represented, though do it now, more than then.  Traffic will not be any better, without some planning to get people out of town.  But, there are bigger things than these.

ISIL is a small group that won't get anywhere, an analysis that the White House advertised, even as they grew.  What happened to intelligence is anyone's guess.

We have cut our military to the point that they send troops to battle 3 or 4 times and wonder why they die in those places.  We send them to some God-forsaken places to fight Ebola, which is not a military mission.  And we ship them back to Iraq with barely enough force to maintain their mission.  We give law enforcement their heavy troop carriers.  Is this how our military fights now?

The Romans said they didn't need to worry.  Everything would work out in the end.  Did we forget Al Qaeda so soon?  How do 30,000 ISIS guys run down to Baghdad, coming close to surrounding the city, without somebody noticing and doing something about it?  Where are the Russians and Chinese?  Both of them have a lot more to lose if this doesn't go well.

The Middle East is a mess.  It can burn and we can watch, or we can go to war.  What kind of choice is that?