There is a disturbing sentence in the middle of a fascinating article on the future of American-European relations. Victor Davis Hanson takes Old Europe to task for enjoying a free ride on defense spending at American expense and repaying Yankee generosity with contempt and arrogance.
"Maybe", says Hanson, "it is our power and their weakness that incite jealousy and necessitate such pretence. It is an age-old phenomenon not unlike the case of the Aegean states of the Hellenic League, which preferred to pay Athens with tribute rather than ships for their own protection — and then awoke furious that the Athenian fleet was establishing its own defense policy and unchecked by multilateral constraints."
This is a troubling analogy. Fifth-century B.C. Athens, to whom Hanson likens the USA, had just cleared the Persian threat from the Greek mainland and proposed to go further, liberating even more Hellenic cities in Ionia. To do so they formed the Delian League with their island allies. These cities would pay into a common treasury and Athens would provide the ships and men to rout the Persians. Unfortunately Athens grew addicted to both this money (which was used largely to rebuild the Acropolis and subsidize the mob) and their military superiority. Hubris seized the city's leadership; the alliance was regarded as an Athenian empire. The bullying attitude of Athens led to the Peloponnesian war which brought defeat to the city and ended Greek pretensions to moral and political leadership forever.
I worry that an intelligent American commentator can overlook the lessons of 2,500 years ago and see in the Delian League only the weakness of the smaller states while ignoring the destructive pride and martial swagger of Athens that led to its own downfall.
There is no clearer illustration of the dangers that absolute power presents than Thucydides' "The Peloponnesian War", especially that part known as the Melian Dialogue. In this conversation between the Athenian delegation and the citizens of the island of Melos in 416 BC, the Melians attempt to put the case for their remaining neutral instead of being forced to become a tributary of Athens -- the equivalent of rebuffing the current American assertion that one is either for or against them. The Melians based their claim on justice, honour and religion but the Athenians dismissed such trifles, stating "in the discussion of human affairs the question of justice only enters where there is equal power to enforce it, and that the strong do what they have the power to do, and the weak accept what they must." Naked self-interest is what matters: "It is a general law of nature to rule wherever one can. This law was not made by us, and we are not the first who have acted upon it; we did but inherit it, and shall bequeath it to all time, and we know that you and all mankind would do as we do , if you were as strong as we are."
The people of Melos, trusting to their gods and allies, chose to defy Athens. The Athenians slaughtered every Melian male of military age and sold the women and children into slavery. Lovers of history know, however, that this atrocity was avenged before very long. In 404 BC flute girls hired by the conquering Spartan played as the walls of Athens were pulled down and its war-galleys burnt.
While Americans revel in their current super-power status and survey a world where they have no military equal, they would do well to be more careful readers not only of Thucydides but also of the arch-apologist of imperialism, Rudyard Kipling who knew a thing or two about pride and destruction:
Recessional
God of our fathers, known of old,
Lord of our far-flung batle-line,
Beneath whose awful Hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine -
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget - lest we forget!
The tumult and the shouting dies;
The Captains and the Kings depart:
Still stands thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget - lest we forget!
Far-called, our navies melt away;
On dune and headland sinks the fire:
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget - lest we forget!
If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe,
Such boastings as the Gentiles use,
Or lesser breeds without the Law -
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget - lest we forget!
For heathen heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard,
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And guarding, calls not Thee to guard,
For frantic boast and foolish word -
Thy mercy on Thy People, Lord!