"Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so, whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose -- and you allow him to make war at pleasure. If today, he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada, to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him, 'I see no probability of the British invading us' but he will say to you, 'Be silent; I see it, if you don't." 

 Abraham Lincoln.

FROM THE PAST, A VIEW OF YOUR FUTURE.

My sister and I; 1940 outside our tent.  The RR tracks you can see behind us were the only road out.

This was our "School bus."  Just down the tracks from our "Home"

Today I am going to try something different.  A little history lesson for those who do not seem to believe the old adage; "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it."  And seeing as how a great majority of the American people only know their own family history as far back as their grandparents, if that, I believe it is time someone tried to explain a few things.  And being the good samaritian I shall take that burden upon my somewhat sagging shoulders.

So away we go.  Now I suppose that most of you out there have at least heard of the Roman empire.  (Except if you're from Alaska that is.  I expect nothing from those types.)  Well, when the city of Rome was still quite young it started on an adventure that ended up with it being the greatest and most powerful empire the Western World had ever seen up to that time.  But it wasn't easy.  As these things seldom are.  And their first attempt at conquest failed rather miserably.  The object of their evil desires was the city of Carthage, located in what is now Tunisia.  (Southern side of the Mediterranen.  Get your handy atlas out gang.) For Carthage was the power in the Western Med. at that time and controlled all the trade passing both West and East due to their superior Navy and Naval tactics.  But the Romans, full of themselves as they were, decided to call them out  in 264BC.  And thus what are known as the Punic wars began. But at huge cost.  And in the vernacular of today, they got their arses soundly thrashed in the beginning.   But they were not the types to give up, nothing would do for them except "Victory".  (If this is beginning to sound familiar that's why I bother.)  And after almost 100 years of bitter conflict the Romans emerged victorious in 146BC.  But at great cost with thousands upon thousands of soldiers killed on both sides.  But Carthage was razed to the ground and although the Romans eventually rebuilt it  it never rose to it's Imperial glory again and was finally destroyed for good in the 7th century when the Muslim Arabs invaded.

But this is not the tale I wish to tell, just the beginning.  For as you all should know Rome became the most powerful nation on Earth which no one in their right mind would oppose.  But there were an awful lot of people that were not in their right mind in those days and they met opposition everywhere they went.  With the emperor Hadrian finally having to build a wall at the North of England to keep the wild Scots out and on the continent, the Danes succesfuly doing the same to keep the Romans out.

And from being the most powerful nation on earth Rome fell into decay and finally was conqured in 476 AD. You can go here and read the reasons behind the fall if you are so inclined.   Which I can only recommend as they may shock you a bit.  But Rome is not what this is all about.  So it's back to a destroyed Carthage and the aftermath.  Because the Tunisians (To give them their modern name and, I hope, avoid confusion.) did not take kindly to the idea of being poor and starving just so that they could supply slaves to work on Roman farms.  And the insurrection was on.  And it stayed on throughout the life of the Roman empire.  Not to say it was ever successful as it was not.  But the idea of being a free people able to make their own choices as to how they should be governed would not die.

Then, after the collapse of the Roman empire, the Arabs came.  And they conqured and occupied both sides of the Med. and started what was to become an independent nation on it's own, Andalucia where I live today and where this is being written.  A splendid place and the seat of learning and wisdom that far surpassed anything in Europe at that time.  But again the people on the other side of the Med. were not happy although they had adopted the Muslim religeon and the Arabic tounge as their own.  And again the insurrection sprang up.  While at the same time the Arab rulers in Spain became more corrupt and then in 1492 the last of the Kingdom of Granada fell to the Christians and that was the end of Moorish  Spain.  And the Spanish could not leave well enough alone but had to cross the Med and along with the French conqure and occupy the whole of the coast.  But that did not last long either and the Ottoman empire very rapidly replaced them.  And they lasted until the end of WWI in which they were involved with disasterous results and with the final, formal dissolution taking place in 1922.  But before this took place, although the disolution of the Ottoman empire was already in full swing, the French, in 1880, made a deal with the Brits and which allowed them to formally take over Tunisia in 1881.    But this time with far more devestating results for the French.  Who fought a bitter colonial war that cost again thousands and thousands of lives and ended with Tunisia proclaiming it's total independence in 1956. 

And finally we arrive at the whole point of this somewhat longwinded screed.  For well over 2000 years the Tunisian people have fought every invader from the Romans right up to the French.  Sometimes with luck but more often, as is usually the case when fighting against a more powerful oppressor, with failure.  But one thing that did not fail was the hope of the people to be free.  That you cannot kill.  As hopefully the Americans are beginning to realize and perhaps understand that they are not the only people on earth that desire to be free.  Free from outside interference.  That this lesson has to be learned the hard way is a shame but as I stated in the beginning, if you will not remember history then you are doomed to repeat it.  And it was the American desire, burning desire I should say, that caused a lot of mostly unprepared and poorly trained and equipped farmers to defy what was the greatest military power on earth in 1776 and thus give birth to our great nation.

But as of late, the American people have totally forgotten this and think freedom is all about the waving of flags and shouting of slogans and that they are the only people on earth entitled to enjoy it's benefits.  The sad part being that even as late as the 60's and the terrible war in Viet Nam this was not nor has this been recognized.  America pulled out of Viet Nam when, after 10 years of purposly inflicted terror, the loss of American lives became to great to be borne politically at home.  And that is the only reason!  The fact that we had slaughtered in every despicable manner possible some 2 to 3 million totally innocent people in South East Asia had no bearing what so ever on this decision.

And now you have a semi-senile lunatic running for the highest office in the land at this moment who still believes that we could have attained "victory" if we had just kept the slaughter up a little longer.  Just as he expects us to do in Iraq.  Not knowing, nor caring if he should be aware of it, that other people in this world are prepared to fight thousands of years to free themselves from oppression.

So if you desire to see the slaughter continue and widen horrendously just vote for John Sydney McCain III.  An ignorant, spoiled opportunist that has never worked a day in his life of privledge and you will find yourself saddled with a sort of combined Nero/Caligula figure but one without the sophistication and taste but with a far greater arsenal of destruction at hand.  But equally foul of temperment and belief in his own devine right to all the privilege the Empire has to offer.

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