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How to run an Empire

 

Senator Tim Johnson says we can't afford to provide good health care to vets:

 

. Johnson said that he couldn’t support the bill because of its cost—$35 billion the first two years and $50 billion per year after that, according to a preliminary estimate by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

This is the same Sen. Johnson who said in a recent MSNBC interview that the current crisis in Iraq was caused because President Obama was not forceful enough about keeping troops in the country when the war ended. I am sure he would have found the money for that. I wonder if Senator Johnson would whine about the costs of the VA if just one of his three children had spent a year or more in some godforsaken hellhole like Afghanistan or Iraq.

 

via Daily Kos

Well, I hate to disagree with a Kosite, but Senator Johnson is right. In the entire history of the world, has there ever been a self respecting empire that wasted money on the men it chewed up and spit out to impose its will on its imperial subjects?

 

One of the reasons the U.S. has been unsuccessful at Empire is our insistence on paying lip service to democratic values and providing our soldiers with some modicum of economic security after we throw them away. Here's the proper way for an empire to operate:

 

 

Now, you didn't see the Romans providing medical care or benefits to their retired veterans, or the British either, when they were on top of their game. Let's face it, the British empire began its decline when the British Navy got rid of the cat'o'nine tails.

 

So, if you want to run an Empire right, ask yourself WWTRD (What would the Romans Do?). Senator Johnson could answer that question for you, and in suggesting we follow their example he's only doing his best to make sure our Empire is as long lasting and powerful as its predecessors. Of course, there was that inevitable decline, happening much faster here than in Roman times, but while times were good nobles like Johnson did very well indeed.

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