I am amazed how similar we are to Rome in the 4th and 5th Centuries. Rome was also too cheap to fund a decent sized army and instead tried to buy peace by buying off barbarian tribes with free government land and safety from the more dangerous barbarians outside the empire. In exchange the barbarian tribes were expected to contribute to the defense of the empire by serving in the Roman army. Time and again the barbarians got military training and then promptly decided to march on Rome. Rome in effect did exactly what we are doing, they opened the gates to the empire to poor downtrodden refugees fleeing even worse barbarians. What is different is that we also have half the population trying to insure we disarm the other half while lauding our new barbarian invaders and refugees... Stupidity and Politics writ large. It took the West 1000 years to recover from the first barbarian invasions and the fall of Rome. I wonder how long it will take the West to recover from the new Islamic invasion. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/How+i...rd+historian+Peter+Heather+has...-a0141907543
