The Ruin of the Roman Empire 2014-01-07

An American soldier posted in Anbar province during the twilight war
over the remains of Saddam’s Mesopotamian kingdom might have been
surprised to learn he was defending the westernmost frontiers of the an-
cient Persian empire against raiders, smugglers, and worse coming from
the eastern reaches of the ancient Roman empire. This painful recycling
of history should make him—and us—want to know what unhealable
wound, what recurrent pathology, what cause too deep for journalists and
politicians to discern draws men and women to their deaths again and
again in such a place. The history of Rome, as has often been true in the
past, has much to teach us.