In particular, and perhaps as an aside, the article forces at least two questions:

Read more.

Chances are, there exists a multiplicity of factors contributing to a civilization’s decline and ultimate fall. But are there any striking parallels between what we see in the history of Rome and what we see in our own?

Look no further than…the coin in your pocket. Read more.

Not really, says Consortium News’s Robert Parry.

Read more.

Remember Condoleeza Rice’s warning? “There will always be some uncertainty about how quickly Saddam can acquire nuclear weapons. But we don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.”

Buchanan adds: “The price of our heeding that bluster? Some 4,500 American dead, 35,000 wounded, $1 trillion sunk, 100,000 Iraqi dead, half a million widows and orphans.”

Read more here.

Freedom Betrayed: Herbert Hoover’s History of the Second World War and Its Aftermath is a searing indictment of FDR and the men around him as politicians who lied prodigiously about their desire to keep America out of war, even as they took one deliberate step after another to take us into war.

Read the rest.

(Evidently, Hoover describes FDR’s pre-war policies towards the Japanese as “putting pins in rattlesnakes…”).

One episode typically missing from the “terrorism” narrative altogether involves CIA meddling in Indonesia. The great southeast Asian island nation is, after all, the most populous Muslim country in the world, home to a fifth of the world’s Muslims. But what does Indonesia have to do with the growth of anti-Americanism among Muslims?

Until 1949, Indonesia was Dutch territory; the Dutch had had a long, cruel history in the islands. But that was over now. Independence had been won, and a wildly popular figure–Sukarno–was president of the new state.

The trouble was, naive Sukarno had the gall to wish for neutrality in the Cold War. He even hosted a major conference (the Bandung Conference), inviting other countries hoping for the same thing–not to be pulled into the dangerous choose-Washington-or-Moscow game. States like India and Egypt sent representatives. To the Dulles brothers in particular, this was bad news. Evidently there could be no sitting on the sidelines in the struggle against the Soviets. If you’re not with us, you’re against us.

So naturally they considered murdering Sukarno. They’d even selected an assassin. But the operation was finally called off on the grounds that it would be too complicated.

That was in 1955. But as of yet, such U.S. Government machinations remained more or less unknown. That all changed when, that same year, the White House gave the CIA the order to do whatever was necessary–yep, whatever it takes!–to prevent Indonesia from going Commie.

That was the cue. The CIA poured a million taxpayer dollars into supporting Sukarno’s chief political opponents, represented by the Masjumi Party. Unfortunately for the CIA, the Masjumi Party still lost in Indonesia’s elections.

Aren’t you glad you pay taxes?

1957. Eisenhower has had enough of this Sukarno character, once considered America’s “card” in the anti-Soviet struggle. The president of the United States personally orders the CIA to overthrow the upstart Indonesian leader.

And here’s where the trouble really began. Up until this point, Sukarno really hadn’t picked sides (though he leaned towards Washington, D.C.). He truly desired neutrality. But that ended when Eisenhower’s order for his government’s destruction was leaked to the public three days after it was given. If Sukarno didn’t have a reason to swing Soviet, he did now.

Things were spiraling out of control. Meddling in Indonesia’s internal affairs (plotting assassinations, funding political parties, planning coups) had made things much worse. (This is a running theme here, in case you missed it). The wisest course would probably be to do something different–perhaps try a little George Washingtonian non-intervention.

Nope! Just the next year (1958), the CIA began arming and funding Indonesian rebels. Surely these fighters, flush with American cash and guns, would bring down Sukarno.

They were crushed.

So the CIA sent its own planes (you read that correctly) to attack Indonesia.  If you don’t remember that declaration of war in Congress, that’s because there was none. Most Congressites didn’t even know these events were taking place. But back to the planes. After strafing the northern islands, hundreds of Indonesian civilians lay dead. And anti-American fervor grows. It’s all out in the open now. A U.S. pilot was even shot down. His name was Al Pope. He was captured and sentenced to death (though he was subsequently released, at the behest of the Kennedy administration; he would later boast of killing “thousands of communists”).

Suddenly American involvement was common knowledge in Indonesia. Question: would this increase or decrease the likelihood of anti-American sentiment? Hint: Apply the same circumstances to the United States with, say, the Chinese as the aggressors.

All of this ended up strengthening the communism it was meant to curb (look for patterns!), while turning a significant portion of the world’s Muslim population, tragically, against the United States of America.

Now: back to the Middle East.

To be sure, the last time people worried about fascism was during the Second World War. We were said to be fighting this evil system abroad. The US defeated fascist governments but the philosophy of governance that it represents was not defeated. Very quickly following that war, another one began. This was the Cold War that pitted capitalism against communism. Socialism in this case was considered to be a soft form of communism, tolerable and even praiseworthy insofar as it was linked with democracy, which is the system that legalizes and legitimizes an ongoing pillaging of the population.

In the meantime, almost everyone has forgotten that there are many other colors of socialism, not all of them obviously left wing. Fascism is one of these colors.

Read the whole piece here.

During the Republican presidential debate of 11 August, Senator Rick Santorum displayed behavior suggesting he may have need a more correct U.S. History textbook. Here is what he said (defending the idea of sanctions on Iran), directed at Congressman Ron Paul:

“Iran is a country that has been at war with us since 1979. Iran has killed more American men and women in uniform in Iraq and Afghanistan than the Iraqis and Afghans have.”

As Paul subsequently pointed out, this is simply bad history. The U.S. government has been at war with Iran since at least 1953, when it orchestrated a coup that toppled that country’s democratically elected leader and, in his place, installed a dictator. One of the unintended consequences of this intervention was the 1979 Iranian Revolution, including the taking of the American Embassy. For more, read and follow Textbookcheck’s ongoing series, Genesis of Terror.

Perhaps we could all learn something from the Roman experience in Britain, as described by one century-old textbook:

30. Wherein Roman Civilization fell Short.

But this splendid fabric of Roman power signally failed to win the support of the majority of the Britons. Civilization, like truth, cannot be forced on minds unwilling or unable to receive it. Least of all can it be forced by the sword’s point and the taskmaster’s lash.

In order to render his victories on the Continent secure, Caesar butchered thousands of prisoners of war, or cut off the right hands of the entire population of large settlements to prevent them from rising
in revolt.

The policy pursued in Britain, though very different, was equally heartless and equally fatal. There were rulers who endeavored to act justly, but such cases were rare. One of the leaders of the North Britons said, “The Romans give the lying name of Empire to robbery and slaughter; they make a desert and call it peace.”

* The above is an excerpt from D. H. Montgomery’s 1912 textbook, The Leading Facts of English History.

“Robbery and slaughter”–can empire be anything else?

GENERAL RUFUS PUTNAM

(1738-1824).

169. What General Putnam did for Washington, and what the British said of Putnam’s work.–When the British had possession of Boston in the time of the Revolution, Washington asked Rufus Putnam, who was a great builder of forts, to help him drive them out. Putnam set to work, one dark, stormy night, and built a fort on some high land [Dorchester Heights] overlooking Boston Harbor.

When the British commander woke up the next morning, he saw the American cannon pointed at his ships. He was so astonished that he could scarcely believe his eyes. “Why,” said he, “the rebels have done more in one night than my whole army could have done in a week.” Another officer, who had command of the British vessels, said, “If the Americans hold that fort, I cannot keep a ship in the harbor.”

Well, we know what happened. Our men did hold that fort, and the British had to leave Boston. Next to General Washington, General Rufus Putnam was the man who made them go; for not many officers in the American army could build such a fort as he could.

170. General Putnam builds the Mayflower; goes down the Ohio River and makes the first settlement in Ohio.–After the war was over, General Putnam started with a company of people from New England, to make a settlement on the Ohio River. In the spring of 1788 he and his emigrants built a boat at a place just above Pittsburgh. They named this boat the Mayflower, because they were Pilgrims going west to make their home there.

At that time there was not a white settler in what is now the state of Ohio. Most of that country was covered with thick woods. There were no roads through those woods, and there was not a steamboat or a railroad either in America or in the world. If you look on [a] map and follow down the Ohio River from Pittsburgh, you will come to a place where the Muskingum joins the Ohio. At that place the Mayflower stopped, and the emigrants landed and began to build their settlement.

171. What the settlers named their town; the first Fourth of July celebration; what Washington said of the settlers.–During the Revolutionary War the beautiful Queen Mary of France was our firm friend, and she was very kind and helpful to Dr. Franklin when he went to France for us. A number of the emigrants had fought in the Revolution, and so it was decided to name the town Marietta, in honor of the queen. [The queen's full name in French was Marie Antoinette; the name Marietta is made up from the first and the last parts of her name.]

When the Marietta settlers celebrated the Fourth of July, Major Denny, who commanded a fort just across the river, came to visit them. He said, “These people appear to be the happiest folks in the world.” President Washington said that he knew many of them and that he believed they were just the kind of men to succeed. He was right; for these people, with those who came later to build the city of Cincinnati, were the ones who laid the foundation of the great and rich state of Ohio.

172. Fights with the Indians; how the settlers held their town; Indian Rock; the “Miami Slaughter House.”–But the people of Marietta had hardly begun to feel at home in their little settlement before a terrible Indian war broke out. The village of Marietta had a high palisade built round it, and if a man ventured outside that palisade he went at the risk of his life; for the Indians were always hiding in the woods, ready to kill any white man they saw. When the settlers worked in the cornfield, they had to carry their guns as well as their hoes, and one man always stood on top of a high stump in the middle of the field, to keep a bright lookout.

There is a lofty rock on the Ohio River below Marietta, which is still called Indian Rock. It got its name because the Indians used to climb up to the top and watch for emigrants coming down the river in boats. When they saw a boat, they would fire a shower of bullets at it, and perhaps leave it full of dead and wounded men to drift down the river. In the western part of Ohio, on the Miami River, the Indians killed so many people that the settlers called that part of the country by the terrible name of the “Miami Slaughter House.”

173. What General Wayne did.–But President Washington sent a man to Ohio who made the Indians beg for peace. This man was General Wayne; he had fought in the Revolution, and fought so furiously that he was called “Mad Anthony Wayne.” The Indians said that he never slept, and named him “Black Snake,” because that is the quickest and boldest snake there is in the woods, and in a fight with any other creature of his kind he is pretty sure to win the day. General Wayne won, and the Indians agreed to move off and give up a very large part of Ohio to the white settlers. After that there was not much trouble, and emigrants poured in by thousands.

174. Summary.–In 1788 General Rufus Putnam, with a company of emigrants, settled Marietta, Ohio. The town was named in honor of Queen Mary of France, who had helped us during the Revolution. It was the first town built in what is now the state of Ohio. After General Wayne conquered the Indians that part of the country rapidly increased in population.

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(From time to time, TextbookCheck will publish excerpts from old, oft-used history textbooks. You be the judge: are they better than the textbooks of today? Are their shortcomings similar to those of the current crop of textbooks? What about their strengths?)