Barbarians at the Gate

The Roman Empire fell, leading to the period we today call the Dark Ages. According to historians, even though today's historians have a tendency to distort and revise to fit their personal biases, Rome established their far-reaching empire through the use of a ruthless imperialism. Pax Romana was the rule of the Romans across the western world, and as far east as that troubled middle eastern region from Israel to Iran.

The Romans enjoyed a long run of prosperity and peace. A peace achieved, in many cases, by ruthless oppression of their would-be enemies across the known world. But relative peace. They were the enforcers of peace across their empire.

But they got lazy and bored. They became debauched, corrupt. They ate, drank, engaged in all manner of sexual deviancy, and lined up to watch great spectacles in their coliseum. Their experiment with democracy degenerated into a succession of tyrannical emperor dictators, each seemingly worse then the last.

Eventually, the barbarians from the north overtook the depleted Roman armies to reach Rome itself. The Roman empire crumbled under its own weight. And it took a thousand years for the world to recover.

Has the human race learned anything from the Romans? Apparently not.

The United States ascended as the dominant global power. Not by invading the rest of the world, but by unleashing a new concept of freedom that incorporated some of the democratic ideas of the Greeks and Romans so long ago. The grand political experiment, along with the vast untapped resources of the North American continent, made the US the envy of the world.

The country held firmly to its ideals through a difficult Civil War, then bailed Europe out of two devastating world wars and held Soviet and Chinese communism at bay. The standard of living among Americans exploded to unprecedented levels of wealth and ease. Until now.

The barbarians are at the gates. Instead of the Huns, they are represented by the radical Islamic hordes born out of the oil-rich middle east. Their ancient hatred of Jews, dating back to when Ishmael was slighted by Abraham in favor of his first wife's son Isaac, inflamed when the United Nations allowed the Jews to return to their sacred homeland in a small strip of Palestine and establish their own nation.

The battles in the region would most likely been left alone to reach a conclusion on their own if it weren't for the vast oilfields. The rest of the world relies heavily on those oilfields to power their economic engines. So the West, mainly America and Europe, focused a great deal of attention and resources in the attempt to pacify the middle east powderkeg.

But those efforts are failing. Because the Western world is becoming weary of the unceasing violence and terrorism. And mistakenly thought they could buy off the middle-eastern barbarians by letting them control their own countries and oilfields without western "meddling". Evidenced by Jimmy Carter's enabling of the overthrow of the Shah in Iran, a liberal pacifist policy for which he was rewarded with the American embassy overrun and the staff taken hostage. And the takeover of the Iranian government by radical Ayatollahs.

Now the regimes of Iran and Syria are openly supporting one of their terrorist offshoots, Hezbollah, in an open war against Israel. Iran is building nuclear weapons. Iran and Syria are sending insurgents and resources into Iraq to undermine the new fledgling government there with the belief that the soft Americans will give up and leave if they keep the instability and violence there long enough.

And what is the biggest superpower on earth doing about all this? Surrendering.

I was in Washington state last week, where the only news I could see were the main networks and CNN. The propaganda from our own news media in those outlets about all these problems convinced me it is true. The barbarians are at the gates, and most Americans are in denial.

The news I watched last week was mostly CNN, with an occasional look at NBC. Both outlets have the same routine. Do a story about one of the big problems in the world, then do a follow-on story about why it's Bush's fault.

Sunnis and Shi'ites are killing each other in Iraq. Bush's fault.

Israel fighting Hezbollah. Bush's fault.

BP pipeline in Alaska being shut down for repairs, causing oil supply disruption. Bush's fault.

Joe Lieberman loses primary. Because he doesn't hate Bush enough.

Terrorist plan to crash airliners using liquid explosive materials thwarted. Bush got lucky, but the terrorists wouldn't be trying to blow them up if he wasn't president.

Instead of recognizing the threat and banding together as a country, here's what our citizens are focused on:

Celebrity gossip

Gay Marriage

Getting out of Iraq

Global Warming

The NFL season

Outrage at the kinds of surveillance and intelligence-gathering techniques that foiled this week's terrorist plot.

Forcing Israel into a unilateral cease fire.

Forcing oil companies to lower gas prices.

Outrage at Republicans who try to allow oil drilling in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico.

Blaming Christians and Appeasing Muslims.

As I said, the Barbarians are at the Gate and the gate is unlocked.