History repeats itself - and do we learn???

[carolinw]

Been doing some research on the Ostrogoths and the Gothic War with Justinian, lasting, all in all, 25 years.  Here was another guy (Justinian, the East Roman Emperor) who thought he could waltz into a country with his superior army, a quick in and out, and be done with it (similarities to current conflicts scream out at you).  25 years of all-out

Comments

[yakalskovich]

Now, that analogy is really interesting.

Bush isn't building anything. The war, and the more restrictive laws, are just the same.

Now, remind me why Justinian first sent Belisarius to Italy, other than sheer 'We want it'? Was there any special reason they decided they neede to 'intervene'?

[carolinw]

Well, the original casus belli for the Gothic War was the murder of Amalaswintha. She had asked for help/asylum from Justinian before and was willing to cede Italy to him in exchange, but then waffled to and fro about that. Actually, Theodahad offered the same thing to Justinian

[yakalskovich]

I like the analogies, actually. And the belief in their superiority sounds likely; same as the US in Afghanistan and Iraq, or the Russians in Chechnya, in fact...

[carolinw]

And as I'm just listening to the morning news on NPR, I hear all this stuff about the use of torture, whether waterboarding is torture, etc. As you noted elsewhere, one of the defining moments (in terms of PR damage) was Abu Ghraib for the US in Iraq. Now in the Gothic War, there were no Geneva Conventions, even though some things went too far even for battle-hardenend generals and observers, so it seems those issues were at least discussed in places. It's kind of hard to claim moral superiority if you're using the same nefarious means as the enemy you fight.... Especially when you overlay it with a hint of "my god/religion is better than yours."