Monday, September 10, 2007

Napoleon (Bush) meets Spain (Iraq)

“Spain…lit and carried the torch of national liberation, fighting the usurper as the very personification of evil, apostasy, and atheism. Napoleon, in his own way a child of the Enlightenment, had calculated with measurable, empirically verifiable quantities. A rising which derived its impetus from a combination of national, religious, and other spiritual forces represented an imponderable for which he had made no allowance and which therefore had proved a very unpleasant surprise.”

Am I alone at seeing a parallel; a repetition of history? Please note that I am not comparing the President to Napoleon save for the rationalization approach to policy, not am I comparing Spain to Iraq but for the intensity of the rebellion; it is the conflict between emotion and rationalism to which I draw your attention


From the book, A History of Prussia, by H. W. Koch, Dorset Press New York, 1978, a quote on page 188.

1 comment:

ceblakeney said...

An interesting observation, warrants more investigation. Yet I would hardly pair the words 'Bush' (as in the current occupier of the Oval Office) and 'enlightenment' in any observation of any kind.