The Scourge of Militarism

[IrateCitizen]

The Scourge of Militarism

By Chalmers Johnson, tomdispatch.com
September 16, 2003

The collapse of the Roman republic in 27 BC has significance today for the United States, which took many of its key political principles from its ancient predecessor. Separation of powers, checks and balances, government in accordance with constitutional law, a toleration of slavery, fixed terms in office, all these ideas were influenced by Roman precedents. John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams often read the great Roman political philosopher Cicero and spoke of him as an inspiration to them. Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, authors of the Federalist Papers, writing in favor of ratification of the Constitution signed their articles with the name Publius Valerius Publicola, the first consul of the Roman republic.

The Roman republic, however, failed to adjust to the unintended consequences of its imperialism, leading to a drastic alteration in its form of government. The militarism that inescapably accompanied Rome's imperial projects slowly undermined its constitution as well as the very considerable political and human rights its citizens enjoyed. The American republic, of course, has not yet collapsed; it is just under considerable strain as the imperial presidency – and its supporting military legions – undermine Congress and the courts. However, the Roman outcome – turning over power to an autocracy backed by military force and welcomed by ordinary citizens because it seemed to bring stability – suggests what might happen in the years after Bush and his neoconservatives are thrown out of office.

Obviously, there is nothing deterministic about this progression, and many prominent Romans, notably Brutus and Cicero, paid with their lives trying to head it off. But there is something utterly logical about it. Republican checks and balances are simply incompatible with the maintenance of a large empire and a huge standing army. Democratic nations sometimes acquire empires, which they are reluctant to give up because they are a source of wealth and national pride, but as a result their domestic liberties are thereby put at risk.

These not-particularly-original comparisons are inspired by the current situation of the United States, with its empire of well over 725 military bases located in other people's countries; its huge and expensive military establishment demanding ever more pay and ever larger appropriations from a supine and manipulated legislature; unsolved anthrax attacks on senators and newsmen (much like Rome's perennial assassinations); Congress's gutting of the Bill of Rights through the panicky passage of the Patriot Act – by votes of 76-1 in the Senate and 337 to 79 in the House; and numerous signs that the public is indifferent to what it is about to lose. Many current aspects of our American government suggest a Romanesque fatigue with republican proprieties. After Congress voted in October 2002 to give the president unrestricted power to use any means, including military force and nuclear weapons, in a preventive strike against Iraq whenever he – and he alone – deemed it "appropriate," it would be hard to argue that the constitution of 1787 is still the supreme law of the land.

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[Brucey]

1. Roman empire? Looks like we're going more the way of

the old USSR! (or some might say fascist Germany)

[IrateCitizen]

2. Did you read the entire article???

Because, judging from your response, if you did, you completely missed the parallels between the deterioration of the Roman Republic in pursuit of imperial power and the deterioration of the United States Republic in pursuit of the same.

I think that the USSR has very little in common with the US. Likewise with the rise of Nazism in Germany. Better comparisons can be made with Ancient Rome; along with the Spanish, Dutch and British Empires of the past 500 years.

[pansypoo53219]

3. but since you are 'talking' to 'muricans'

the USSR is a better choice. Most americans KNOW what brought them down. excessive spending on the military. I have been saying this for quite a while. just do not think Bushit is Gorby.

[IrateCitizen]

4. The article doesn't even mention "excessive spending on the military"

It's thrust is the erosion of checks and balances within government as an empire is formed. THAT was the beginning of the end for ancient Rome, as it is proving to be for the US.

The USSR never really had checks and balances from the beginning, nor did it have an empire.