By Con
George-Kotzabasis
The
following is a reply of mine to a professor of Greek history from Brisbane
University.
An excellent analysis of the Peloponnesian War and its effects on
the future polities of the Greek Poleis. I would like, if you allow me, to
associate the Peloponnesian War with our contemporary times by underlining the
strategic relationship of the two Thallasian Empires, that of the Athenian and
that of the United States, that each had with the other.
Thucydides, in his inimitable history of the Peloponnesian War,
identified the cause of the war of Spartan fear of Athenian power. And he
stated clearly that the Athenian war, under the statesmanship of
Pericles, was a pre-emptive war against Sparta, without reproaching or
condemning Pericles for such kind of war. Indeed, Thucydides praised it on the
principle, to quote him, “it was praiseworthy to get one’s blow in
first against someone who was going to do wrong.” The USA, under the leadership, of
George W. Bush, replicating the Athenian strategy, was also engaged in a
pre-emptive war in Afghanistan against the fanatical hordes of the Taliban and
Al-Qaeda for which some contemporary historians condemned Bush unremittingly.
I would like to ask you to comment, whom of the historians were
right, Thucydides who praised pre-emptive war or those who condemned it.
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