We’re Not Rome…

… we’re Athens circa 431 BC.  At least that’s what starting Andrew Bacevich’s The Limits of Powerabout a week after a book on the Peloponnesian War seems to imply.  Athens in 431 not in the sense of faced with Sparta, but faced with choices about itself.  Reagan’s Star Wars/SDI, in this reading, would kick off something akin to the American quest to build the Long Walls.

That’s all I’ve got for now.  Chew on it for a little while; I will be.  Meanwhile, Happy New Year, and remember to never fully trust any historical parallel given to present times.  It’s never literal.