Stumbling Into Ruin
Reflections on senescence, amnesia, and war.
Recently I reread Paul Kennedy’s The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000.
A consistent theme throughout the book is how great powers often fall when their military ambitions surpass their capabilities—that is, great powers have always had a tendency to overestimate themselves and underestimate their rivals.
Chapter 5 details to the run-up to World War I, and how every power in Europe failed to understand the sheer scope of the cataclysm they would unleash when they committed to war in 1914. In spite of possessing far greater general education and knowledge of history than today’s pitiful crop of politicians, the leaders of Europe in 1914 miscalculated everything. At the war’s conclusion four years later, the disaster had claimed 20 million lives and wounded 21 million others.
The war started when ranking members of the Hapsburg Court in Vienna issued an unfulfillable ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia, and it concluded with the end of the Hapsburg dynasty’s rule since 1282.
I woke up this morning to reports of an attack on a beach resort in Sevastopol (Crimea) with five US-supplied ATACMS tactical missiles, fired from Ukrainian territory, that killed three people and wounded over 100. And so, it seems, the U.S. and Nato continue on the path of escalation.
I wonder if the people featured in the following video know what they are getting themselves into. Are they acquainted with the history of the 1900-1914 period, and do they recognize the eery resemblance it bears to the current situation in Europe?
Almost the entire Democrat establishment and most of the Republican think we can get into a nuclear exchange with Russia and win. I'm not certain what a "W" will look like after an exchange. But our current crop of "leaders" are much dumber and ignorant than the ones who ran establishment parties 1900-1917, so I'm not optimistic about what's coming. But there is one thing one can point out. We are living in an exciting period. Whereas Gibbon, in his granular history of the Roman Empire conclusively made the point that it was not that it failed but that it took so long to do so, we are watching our fall in real time, over just a couple of decades. And we're accelerating towards the cliff.
Danny Huckabee
War mongers in the swamp aren’t going to get it till we get our asses kicked. War complex and bankers want it need it. Osama spent 5 million we in turn spent 8 trillion and look how many great Americans we lost maimed and innocent iraqis and there wasnt 1 iraqi on any planes all Saudis i never thought i see the day where i have no faith in our military institution. look at
miley cq brown these people are abominable failures and woke treasonous bastards