Short Quiz – The End of Everything: How Wars Descend into Annihilation

[johnkarls]

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1. Is our author, Victor Davis Hanson, widely recognized as the foremost MILITARY historian in the nation, if not the world?

2. In “The End of Everything,” does he focus SOLELY ON ABRUPT WARTIME DESTRUCTIONS (vs. earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, plagues, climate change, etc.)?

3. Is he doing so as a warning to present-day America?

4. Does he focus on the wartime destruction of 4 civilizations –

• Thebes (destroyed by Alexander the Great in 335 BC)?
• Carthage (by Rome 149-146 BC)?
• Constantinople (by the Ottoman Turks in 1453)?
• The Aztec Empire (by Spain’s Hernán Cortés in 1521)?

5. Do we already know quite a bit about the fall of Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) from past meetings?

6. For example, were all of the so-called Crusades launched BY THE VATICAN against the Turks between the time the Seljuk Turks swept into the Middle East (from Russian Turkestan and Chinese Turkistan, aka Sinkiang) in the mid-1000's and the fall of Constantinople (1453) to the Ottoman Turks by mobilizing European Christian nations to relieve military pressure against Constantinople (although all of the Crusades, except one, went to The Holy Land because “liberating The Holy Land” was “an easier sell” for The Vatican which realized that military attacks ANYWHERE against the Turks would relieve military pressure against Constantinople)?

7. And does every opera lover know quite a bit about Ancient Carthage from Hector Belioz’s famous “Les Troyens” whose Trojan refugees (following the Fall of Troy because of the famous Trojan Horse) settled for several years in Ancient Carthage with Queen Dido, and then left to found Rome?

8. Indeed, did our January 2013 meeting on “Assisted Suicide” note in passing that following the Fall of Troy, the Trojan MEN who saved the Trojan Citidel, then escaped to Carthage where they were welcomed by Queen Dido BUT THE TROJAN WOMEN WHO WERE TRAPPED IN A DIFFERENT PART OF TROY, COMMITTED MASS SUICIDE RATHER THAN BECOME SLAVES OF THE GREEK WARRIORS?

9. And did our January 2012 meeting on “Real Politik and Libya vs. Iran” focus on the significance of Libya and Algeria “sandwiching” Tunisia (whose capital Tunis is Ancient Carthage)?

10. And did our October 2008 meeting on “Team of Rivals” by Dorothy Kearns Goodwin invoke Carthage in its “Short Quiz” reference to William Manchester’s famous “Arms of Krupp” which posits that wars are usually won by one side having superior weapons or tactics (and, unlike Vietnam, having the will to use them) whose example (Q&A-12) was “Hannibal's use of elephants against Rome on behalf of ancient Carthage (modern-day Tunis on the African coast of the Mediterranean)”?

11. Had we, as a group, been left to our own individual reading/study for information about Thebes (and Alexander the Great) and about the Aztecs (and Spain’s Hernán Cortés) FROM WHICH WE WILL NOW BE RESCUED BY “THE END OF EVERYTHING”?

12. Is Niall Ferguson widely recognized as the foremost ECONOMICS historian in the nation, if not the world?

13. Have several of his many books been the focus of past meetings?

14. Have several of the many books by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Ferguson’s wife) been the focus of past meetings?

15. On 4/24/2024, did Niall Ferguson publish an article announcing “Ferguson’s Law” that any great power that spends more on debt service (interest payments on the national debt) than on defense will not stay great for very long? [Please see viewforum.php?f=811&sid=51cf84e52968497 ... d186830746 for a copy of the article.]

16. In addition to Victor Davis Hanson’s reasons why America appears doomed, does “Ferguson’s Law” provide another reason?

17. Have you already purchased a parachute (available for $490 from Amazon) in order to “bail out” if America crashes???