On 10/11/2011 12:14 AM, aemeijers wrote:
On 10/10/2011 11:23 PM, RickH wrote:
On Oct 10, 8:21 pm, wrote:
Robert Green wrote:

Heh! It took the Roman Empire longer to fall than the United States
has been in existence. We have, by that measure, a couple of hundred
years before the end.

Uh oh! We're being HeyBubbed again!

I get my information off of the internet!

"This slow decline occurred over a period of approximately 320 years,
culminating on September 4, 476, when Romulus Augustus, the last
Emperor of
the Western Roman Empire, was deposed by Odoacer, a Germanic chieftain."



Life and events in ancient Rome could move no faster than the speed
of the fastest horse. Things move quite a bit more quickly now.
Total, world-ending war could take place in just a few hours nowadays
with nuclear weapons. Your "measures" and extrapolations are both
bogus. Life moves much more quickly these days than in ancient Rome.

A knife thrust into the belly of the emperor is considerably faster
than the
fastest horse, even faster than the internet.



How long did the English Empire last? According to your metrics, it
should be still a healthy, powerful world entity.

Huh? I didn't say that or even intimate it.



What we actually have is Harry and Company. Not very much a threat
to the
world.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Actually those Germans knocked down a major aqueduct. Rome was soon
gone after that. The achilles heel of Rome was the aqueduct, one of
the very things that made it thrive. At some point you cant defend
something as big as an aqueduct, a few enterprising demolitionists in
the countryside while your army is spread all over the medeterranean
putting down minor insurrections will do the trick.


Please don't remind the world about how many soft targets North America
has, that are totally impractical to defend.


That's why we should use our nukes, when The Twin Towers fell, our
government should have taken out a Saudi port or city. The only thing
people in The Middle East understand is a severe ass kicking. After
nuking a large target over there, let them know that Mecca is next if
they so much as look at us the wrong way. I had a Middle Eastern guy
tell me that the only man who could control Iraq was Saddam Hussein.
I think what it meant was the people only understood brutality and
tyranny coupled with swift harsh punishment for misbehaving. Wasn't
it amazing how Moammar Kadafi shut up after U.S. air power almost got
him. ^_^

TDD