There are lessons to be learned from Ancient Greece, but did Dr. Kagan really learn them? “In 1997 he signed the founding principles of the Project for the New American Century, a think tank of which his son Robert was a creator that called for the country to reassert its power in the post-Cold War world. In 2000 he and his son Frederick published “While America Sleeps,” which likewise criticized what they saw as a dangerous drift in U.S. foreign policy”.
Our greatest Greek history scholar! The “New American Century” crowd was a collection of arrogant racist jingoists who joined the Bush-Cheney regime in drafting the plans for the illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. What should have been learned from the Peloponnesian War is the exact opposite of the politics of Professor Kagan. Democratic Athens decided to spread its system around the Mediterranean, invaded other countries, didn’t know what it was doing, lost its democracy and had a Spartan puppet government installed and the great dream of the Project for the New Athenian Century floundered just as US foreign policy has in this century. If you want to really learn the lessons of the Peloponnesian War, stick with Thucydides.
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