Oh, that's right. That was then; this is now. Who cares about ancient (i.e., 30 year-old) history?

Besides, without a mischief-making Centralized Mayhem Apparatus--Rome, Britain, the U.S.A., whatever--there can be no Centralized Chaos. The alternative is armed neutrality, Constitutional constraint, noninterventionism, subsidiarity or anarchy. The alternative might even bring us Order. We can't have that now, can we?

The wonder is that people call this crappy system of shifting (and shifty!) alliances defense. If the U.S. Government were truly interested in defense, it would return the 575,000 troops it has deployed abroad and use them to defend--oh, I don't know--some actual Americans on actual American soil. I know it's lunacy for a Great Nation to adopt a peon, Swisslike foreign policy--never mind that it has served the Swiss so well over the last eight centuries--but with a $13 trillion national deficit, economics alone may compel our infinitely wise and benevolent supervisors to consider desperate measures.