Tacitus’ two most famous lines are in this passage, and memes all over the world are echoing it as policies of interference, “ingérence” the French call it, leave long-lasting catastrophes in their wake. Third, the firebrand Shia militia leader, Muktada al-Sadr, whose ragtag Mehdi Army used to fight US forces, has gone to ground and ordered his gunmen to stack their arms. In 281 BC, after defeating a Roman army at Heraclea in an extremely bloody, hard-fought battle in which his forces suffered grave losses, Pyrrhus famously exclaimed, "one more such victory and we are ruined! Polls show 75% of Iraqis want US troops to depart. The two vied over who could more fulsomely support Israel. Calgacus was the leader of the Caledonian Resistance. I’m skeptical, but don’t know enough about pre- and post-Roman Britain to speak with confidence. Why didn’t Obama tell Americans that the ill-begotten Iraq War has played a key role in the nation’s current financial near-death experience? At least 30,000 Iraqi prisoners are held by the US and routinely tortured or executed without trial. There are now three Iraqi de facto mini-states. Translator’s preface: Fort Russ readers have doubtless thought of the title phrase, as its aptness to our modern world is plain enough. 1.1. Romans, the raptors of the world — after the land ran out for their plundering it all, they look overseas for more. All Rights Reserved. Most are Sunni Muslims. Half the US Army is bogged down in Iraq. Washington’s current plans to continue ruling Iraq by means of a puppet government and mercenary army backed by US air power are an attempt to copy the way the British Empire ruled Iraq and exploited its oil. I have followed up with Tacitus’s original Latin. Saddam Hussein’s prisons held less inmates. But once most of the US forces are withdrawn, Iraq may dissolve once again into violence and chaos, or complete its process of splintering into three mini-states, inviting intervention from its covetous neighbors. I can just imagine the Romans explaining that the slaughter was a small short-run cost dwarfed by massive long-run benefits. MAJOR: CIA and MI6 behind Armenian–Azerbaijani conflict? © Center for Syncretic Studies 2014 - 2020 - Fort Russ. You had better think about this as you and your neocon alter ego Joe Lieberman urge confrontation against Iran, Hezbullah, Pakistan, Taliban, al-Qaida, insubordinate Arabs, Russia and China.". No one knows how many Iraqis have died, but estimates run as high as one million — and this does not include the 500,000 who died from hunger and disease as a result of the draconian US-led embargo of Iraq and the destruction of its national water purification and sewage system by the US Air Force in 1991. The 1804 Northern Secession Plot and the Founding Fathers of the Deep State, DEBUNKED: Azerbaijan Caught Using Lousy False Flags to Justify Using Cluster Munitions Against Armenian Civilians (VIDEOS), WATCH: President Assad Confirms Thousands of Pro-Turkish Terrorists Were Sent to Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) From Syria. The United States is wholly responsible for this human disaster. Translation: It is the rare fortune of these days that one may think what one likes and say what one thinks. That is precisely what the US has so far done in Iraq, a small, devastated nation of only 25 million. I wish Obama had riposted: "Senator McCain, one more victory like this and America is ruined. The US has done what it vowed to oppose: the partition of Iraq into three weak parts: Shia, Sunni, and Kurdish. In this day our very extreme of land and liberty and our reservoir of repute are there to defend us. Auferre trucidare rapere falsis nominibus imperium, atque ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant. Sen. Barack Obama mostly let him get away with it. Real power remains in the hands of the Shia and Sunni militias, and the two Kurdish parties in their by now almost independent state. How to Break the Kneecaps of Wall Street Sociopaths Before It’s too Late: Ferdinand Pecora Revisited, History as Warfare: The ‘1619 Project’ and the Plot to Destroy the Republic. The speech describes the exploitation of Britain by Rome and rouses his troops to fight. ", The Red King of Epirus (modern Albania) might as well have been speaking of Iraq. The brutality of the US occupation of Iraq has enraged the Muslim world against America and, according to US intelligence agencies, has created a whole new generation of anti-American militants. Obama should also have riposted to McCain’s bombast over Georgia: "Senator McCain, are you ready to go to war with Russia over Georgia? First, ethnic cleansing. The only historical source that features him is Tacitus' Agricola, which describes him as "the most distinguished for birth and valour among the chieftains". PS: And don’t forget Venezuela, Cuba, Somalia, and Sudan. Book I, 1 1. He was the first Caledonian to be recorded in history. “They make a desert and call it peace” May 24, 2020 May 24, 2020 Editor. How to do Business at Protests, ‘Newbie’ or Self-Promotion? Today, America is hated around the globe, thank you George Bush and Dick Cheney. Rigging The Election: Can They Unilaterally Cancel Presidential Debates? The occupation is costing the US at least $10 billion per month, not counting depreciation, $67 billion replacement costs for equipment, and billions for medical care of wounded and veterans benefits. McCain’s claims that the US is heading toward victory in Iraq thanks to his inspired military leadership immediately recalled the epic words of Pyrrhus, King of Eprius. By the end of 2008, the supposed "cake walk" in Iraq will have cost US taxpayers $1 trillion, a good part of its borrowed from Japan and China, making it America’s second most expensive war in history. Nos terrarum ac libertatis extremos recessus ipse ac sinus famae in hunc diem defendit: nunc terminus Britanniae patet, atque omne ignotum pro magnifico est; sed nulla iam ultra gens, nihil nisi fluctus ac saxa, et infestiores Romani, quorum superbiam frustra per obsequium ac modestiam effugias. MAJOR: WHO Admits Gates-Backed Vaccine Caused Recent Polio Outbreak in Africa, At Least 60 Million People Have Been Displaced by America’s ‘Freedom And…, REPORT: Thousands of Africans Dying in Horrifying Saudi Detention Camps, Tacitus, translated from Latin by Tom Winter. Iraq remains a nation under foreign occupation. The earlier battles that we fought against the Romans with varying degrees of fortune, have put help and hope in our hands, because we, the very noblest of all Britain, and sited on our very hearths, not looking upon any shores of serfdom, have our eyes pure, free of any contamination of being dominated. The Red King of Epirus (modern Albania) might as well have been speaking of Iraq. History shows that all occupation armies become brutalized, corrupted and demoralized. After five years of war, over four thousand American GI’s are dead, and 30,000 seriously wounded (some figures say 75,000), many with incurable head injuries. B… Attributed by Tacitus in Agricola (c. 98) Translation: To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace. The real reason for the drop in violence and attacks on US occupation forces lies in three other areas. Tacitus wrote a speech which he attributed to Calgacus, saying that Calgacus gave it in advance of the Battle of Mons Graupius. Its US-installed regime controls nothing but the Baghdad Green Zone. The two candidates did reasonably well in the debates, and both emerged looking presidential. It clearly forms part of Tacitus’ propaganising of his father-in-laws exploits so probably is not accurate or even real.