March 25, 2006
COMMENTARY: Jugurthine War – Iranian War?
By Cicero
Special to Huntington News Network
If you look at it, history has an astonishing semblance to a treadmill that
seemingly moves forward but actually just keeps on repeating itself. After
the destruction of Carthage at the conclusion of the Third Punic War,
Numidia became the most important kingdom in North Africa.
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| Cicero
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On the Roman side, the leaders of the successful war against Numidia, Gaius Marius and Lucius Cornelius Sulla, both became dictators of Rome later on and interestingly, both were related to the young Gaius Julius Caesar whose hunger for power eventually led to destruction of the Republic. What we see in there is a definite pattern of ruthless people in families who stop at nothing to gain and retain power for themselves and their families and associates.
In today’s America, we have a similar family of the President George W. Bush, and his brother, both seeking fame and historical recognition – it looks like we are stuck with another Marius and Sulla. And who knows what may come after, another Caesar perhaps. It is our own fault if such individuals are allowed to perpetuate themselves and their families in positions of power that can influence all our lives. Whatever freedom is still left in our hands, we should use it to try and keep these individuals - no matter what party they belong to - from taking long-term political office and perpetuating themselves and their families. One is already more than enough!
Freedom should not be treaded lightly for then it easily gets lost, maybe not rapidly but over time will definitely be chipped away by those power seekers who would try everything possible and impossible to gain and retain control of the public based on a false belief that only they and their associates know what is best for all - a very parental approach that should be avoided and defied at all cost.
It is these individuals who are trying to make us believe that we are surrounded by enemies and should fear all, while playing down the fact that it is actually our own arrogance more than anything else that is feeding the hatred of other peoples against our country. Yes there are despotic rulers in the world today, but let us remind ourselves once again that not every country that disagrees with us is our enemy.
While Iran has shown a noteworthy tendency to be capable of actions that should and have actually been condemned by many nations, it is still an independent nation with a very long history and need to be treated with caution rather than unnecessary provocations. Yes the nations of the world should justly condemn any actions by Iran or any other nations that attempt to develop nuclear weapons, but it is not up to the United States to police those condemnations while we do have the alternative of working through multilateral means to convince Iran and others that world stability is more important than nuclear “boosting rights.”
High-toned harshness on the part of the Administration toward countries like Iran would only drive them further away from the basic international principles of non-proliferation and likely provoke them to take more drastic efforts to speed up building nuclear power – an almost self-fulfilling prophecy.
The Bush Administration seems to believe that it alone should enforce judgments against possible rogue nations – instead of being a fruitful member of a multilateral group of nations and seeking diplomatic solutions without inciting resentments. History has taught us that harsh rhetoric sometime leads to harsh reactions which eventually makes war self fulfilling.
Many nations like Iran are governed by governments that use war-like speeches to stimulate public support for the purpose of maintaining power within their own nation. The United States need not turn itself into an accomplice of those power seekers and instead of joining their ranks, should make sure that our position of strength as a strong member of the international coalition be fully exploited to help reach solutions that all nations agree are acceptable through diplomatic means.
Throughout history, nations seem to always be playing short-term games for various wrong-minded objectives but basically to seek economic or political power over others. However, history judges not these games but the outcomes of the games. The Spanish-American War is a case in point. A war launched on the destruction of the battleship Maine in Havana Harbor, which turned out to be an accident by the way, it accomplished little other than making the United States a new Imperial power, no different than the Spanish who were displaced.
Now this big fuss about imminent threats from Iraq that led to a seemingly endless and increasingly costly war was apparently based on incorrect intelligence, which has in effect given rise to mounting hatred toward the United States and as a result, this great nation of freedom and democracy appears very much to be heading towards a bleak land where the people will be living in constant chaos and fear –we seem never to learn or at least our leaders do not seem to ever learn the lessons of history.
Maybe it is time that we push the “stop” button, and get off the treadmill that keeps running to nowhere.
Editor’s Note: In the 1952 movie “Five Fingers,” James Mason played the valet of the British ambassador to neutral Turkey during World War II. He was a German spy who went by the code name “Cicero.” His intelligence information – including the date of D-Day – was excellent, but fortunately for the Allies, the Germans didn’t believe him, thinking him a double agent. The film was based on real events. The alternate title of the movie is “Operation Cicero.” The Roman political figure, orator and philosopher Cicero was a champion of the traditional institutions of the Roman Republic and the enemy of autocracy, including the politics of Julius Caesar and Pompey.
