Pax Americana

Two weeks ago Lee Presser suggested to me that the general attitude in the liberal world toward terrorists, specifically that we should negotiate with them and that there should be some proportionality in our response to their activities, might be a sign that we are going the way of the Roman Empire.

The Pax Romana lasted for centuries, the Pax Americana though not currently as aged, has been at least as beneficial to world trade and prosperity. In the end, the Roman Empire crumbled largely because of its inability to deal with the barbarian invasions.  The Empire ceased to deal with the aggressors in a way that would prove a deterrent.  As the Empire became soft, so the barbarians moved in and carved it up into tiny pieces until the classical age passed into an age of darkness.

The cosmopolitan attitude that pervades much of the intelligensia of this country coupled with liberal notions of peace, love and brotherhood could thrust us into the same kind of spiral where the barbarian hordes or Islamist Fascists take larger and larger swipes at the free world.

This is indeed a pessimistic view. Though this analogy certainly is vivid and remains a possibility, I believe that the pragmatism of the English Speaking world will not allow this to happen. As the enemy strikes, so the liberals will lose more and more of their adherents, and the hawks will find more and more support.  In the end we will be forced to fight, and so we will fight to win in the tradition of U.S. Grant who demanded the unconditional surrender of Fort Donaldson and the U.S. forces in the Second World War that demanded the unconditional surrender of Germany and Japan.

If the Islamic Fanatics think they have stirred the sleeping giant, perhaps they have.  But he is only just waking up to the dangers posed to him and to the Free World.  When they bring their agenda fully to the attention of the world's free societies (and eventually they will) they will then see a power unleashed that will utterly destroy them.