The willingness of, for example, generations of the elite to fight those devastating wars over oil-rich regions is a perverse side effect of the ming… - Charlie Kirk

Hanson sees a similar desire to boost national morale while also getting the biggest bang for your cautiously spent buck (or your solidus, in the case of the Byzantine Empire) in many great leaders of the past, including Pericles, Alexander the Great, Justinian’s predecessors Augustus and Constantine, the later Holy Roman Emperors Charlemagne and Joseph II, Queen Elizabeth I and Churchill of England, Catherine the Great of Russia, and Abraham Lincoln. They were important not just because of military victories, argues Hanson. They shared a similar nationalist conviction: “They have a historical sense that decline is not a matter of exhaustion of natural resources, or it’s not predicated on enemies over the next hill. Usually, it’s internal.

I can’t help thinking of the famous words shouted by General La Rochejaquelein fighting against the first French Revolution: “Friends, if I advance, follow me! If I retreat, kill me! If I die, avenge me!

Somebody said President Obama is much more popular in Germany than President Trump — he should be,” added Trump in his TPUSA speech. “If I start getting higher poll numbers in Europe, I’m doing something wrong.