The Sicilian Expedition, Lysistrata, and Current Events

[gary webb]

When I was in College, I had a Classics Prof. whom seemed convinced that
the war in Iraq (this was 05-06) was the modern equivalent of the Athenian
Sicilian Expedition. At the time, I didn't really connect the dots b/c the
contrast between the catastrophic failure of Athens and the loss of her
fleet, with the struggles with the quagmire of the US in Iraq. It was a
strange time. I remember sometime during freshmen orientation, all of us
were sort of herded into a room where military recruiters were waiting to
pounce... the was before the Baker Hamilton Commission, etc., but it was
painfully obvious that the cart was coming off the rails... I digress, but
it was a strange time... not very long ago, but long enough to know that
things have changed profoundly. Now, I do see the war in Iraq as something
akin to the Sicilian Expedition... and maybe not so much in terms of simple
military strategy, but as damaging to our credibility, and the Periclean
Democratic (as in Democracy, not Political Party)-Imperial imperative
inherent in the Presidency since the end of WWII... Much the same way that
the aftermath of Vietnam was the death knell of hawkish cold war policy,
and the beginning of Detente... No doubt the financial crisis of 2008 is
just as much to blame as well... but just as Athens fell in the
Peloponnesian War, and spiraled into political chaos, which for great city
states, and Athens in general, seems to be the norm, never able to
recapture the stability they had achieved under Pericles. The result of
these failures was for some of the most important political thinkers in the
West, Plato and Aristotle, to completely write off Democracy... It's
interesting, but it's a stretch of an analogy contingent upon almost
rampant hyperbole, but hey, I'm just giving an "...alternative
representation of the facts..."

On a lighter note, I'm convinced Aristophanes is laughing at us somewhere
after the weekend re-enactment of Lysistrata... the non-creepy modern
version to be sure, but I hope all P-listers that attended kept it real...
Wonder if Pynchon was there in NYC?
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