Monday, April 12, 2004
Lessons in empire
Scott brings up an intersting comparison between the fall of Rome . . .
By the time of Hadrian's (r.117-138CE) rule, the Roman Empire had reached its maximum size. It stretched from Judea, in the East, to the isles of Great Britain in the West, from the Rhine and the Danube Rivers in the West to the Sahara Desert in the South, and surrounded the Mediterranean sea, making it a Roman lake. As we've seen in previous lectures and readings, this empire had been created largely by accident, as a part of Roman defense doctrin following the sacking of Rome by Celts (Gauls) in 380 BCE.
Rome's emperors after 138 CE, however, followed a specific policy of non-expansion. This was because Roman troops were spread too thin to defend all of the empire's borders. Rather than the mobile, flexible force that had been the fulcrum of Roman power in the period of conquest, the army by 138 CE had become mostly a passive guard force, stationed in fortresses and lookout posts along the length of the borders. There were not enough citizens of Rome, and particularly not enough of those who wanted to serve in the army, to cover every square mile of frontier even a single man deep. These thinly spread Roman forces thus had to be augmented by recruits from the provinces.
. . . and a recent USA Today article about troops in Iraq:
A decision by the Pentagon to increase the number of U.S. troops in Iraq is a reversal of its plan to steadily reduce the U.S. force level there.
Since the war began a year ago, senior military leaders have given frequent assurances to troops and their families that Iraq duty would be no longer than a year.
Now, those assurances have met the reality of Iraq, where military leaders are planning for the possibility that anti-U.S. violence will spread. U.S. troops are stretched thin around the world, and the Pentagon has few options to increase the force in Iraq if necessary.
On Monday, a senior official with U.S. Central Command said that the return home of about 24,000 U.S. troops who were scheduled to leave in the next few weeks would be delayed as their replacements arrive. Central Command's responsibility includes the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
(emphasis mine)
posted by chris at 4:06 PM
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