[Fwd: Iraq Dispatches: Inside Abu Hanifa mosque during attack]

[Lan Barnes]

On Wed, Dec 08, 2004 at 09:40:22PM -0800, James E. Henderson wrote:
> > 
> >
> The Roman Republic (res publica, the thing of the people) lasted about 
> 1,200 years; the Roman Empire that followed it lasted about 1,500 years. 

I may be splitting hairs here (I'm re-reading Gibbon, so I'm thinkin'
about this stuff), but I see a significant and important difference
between empire (one country ruling one or more others w/o
representation) and a kingdom/constitutional dictatorship (one person
ruling without any checks or balances and some accepted method of
succession). The two are frequently mixed (USSR, the Roman Empire after
Augustus) but are not necessarily the same (England, pre-Caesar Rome, us
right now, although who knows where we're headed).

I think both empires and kings are a Bad Idea, but for different
reasons.

> Our country has been around for about 215 years. Iraq under Saddam was 
> about the same as Mesopotamia under Gilgamesh 8,000 years ago. They seem 
> to prefer a strong leader.
> 

This is one of the few places where I do believe that things have
changed. I might posit (James, you'd be better at remarking in this)
that the evolution of historical currents seems to be accelerated by the
increased speed of broad communication. Anyway, things seem to go a hell
of a lot faster these days.

-- 
Lan Barnes                    lan at falleagle.net
Linux Guy, SCM Specialist     858-354-0616