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HATING HORATIO |
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Written by Dr. Jack Wheeler
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Wednesday, 24 January 2007 |
Ancient Rome's greatest historian was Titus Livius, known to
us as Livy (59 BC-17 AD). In the Second
Book of his monumental history of Rome, Ab
Urbe Condita (From the Founding of the City), he tells the famous story of
Horatio at the Bridge.
In 510 BC, Rome was threatened with destruction from an
invading army of Etruscans. All Romans
living in the countryside had abandoned their homes and fled for protection
inside the city. The city walls were
heavily garrisoned, but the most vulnerable point was a wooden bridge, the Pons
Sublicius, across the river Tiber and into Rome.
When Etruscan forces focused their attack on the bridge, the
Roman troops guarding it fled in fear - save for one man, a soldier named
Horatius, whom we call Horatio.
"Proudly," says Livy, and all alone, "Horatius took his
stand at the outer end of the bridge; conscious amongst the rout of fugitives,
sword and shield ready for action, he prepared himself for close combat, one
man against an army. The advancing enemy paused in sheer astonishment at such
reckless courage."
Horatio bellowed to his fleeing comrades that they burn and
chop down the bridge while he fought the Etruscans off. Livy continues:
With defiance in his eyes he confronted the Etruscan
chivalry, challenging one after another to single combat, and mocking them all
as tyrants' slaves who, careless of their own liberty, were coming to destroy
the liberty of others. For a while they hung back, each waiting for his
neighbor to make the first move, until shame at the unequal battle drove them
to action, and with a fierce cry they hurled their spears at the solitary
figure which barred their way. Horatius caught the missiles on his shield and,
resolute as ever, straddled the bridge and held his ground.
When the bridge finally collapsed, Horatio fell into the
Tiber and was able to swim to safety.
The citizens of Rome bestowed upon him every possible honor.
This happened in Rome's youth. What if it had happened in Rome's prime, with its citizens so
prosperous they were cynical and spoiled?
What if they despised Horatio's solitary heroism, and their leaders and
intellectual elite pined for Rome's defeat instead? What if the Roman people hated Horatio for his attempt to save
them, rather than honoring him?
For that is the question I had watching the President's State of
the Union speech last night.
Listening to him, I thought of Horatio at the bridge.
Despite all else upon which we may disagree with him, what
blindingly came through last night was that this is a noble man, a heroic man,
standing alone against America's enemies and viciously ridiculed and reviled
for it. Yet he stands there with
graciousness and courtesy, as a gentleman.
He stood there alone and spoke eloquently to a Congress, to
a nation, of spoiled brats.
The day of the speech (1/23), a Washington Post/ABC News
poll announced that 52% of Americans disapprove of Bush's handling of
terrorism, when we have not suffered a single terrorist attack in the over five
years since 9/11 - and that 57% disapprove of his handling of the economy.
That means that 57% of Americans are clinically
deranged. On every measure - the stock
markets, corporate profits, employment, inflation, spendable income, take your
pick - the US economy is doing astoundingly well. How can people possibly disapprove? Yet they do. Because they
are spoiled brats.
There's an old saw that says in a democracy, voters get the
leaders they deserve. Bush disproves it
- for in him, voters are getting better than they deserve. If they got what they deserved, they'd get
Hillary Clinton, and may very well in 2008.
But like Ronald Reagan, Bush's faith in the goodness of
Americans has never wavered. Today, I
talked with Tony Snow, the president's spokesman, and he explained why:
The most important word the president
used in his speech last night was victory. Unlike some members of Congress, those who sat on their hands at
the mention of it, Americans want victory. So we are going to give it to them.
This is no time to feel desperate.
What we need is a sense of mission, a purposeful dynamism. General Petraeus will be giving regular
briefings from now on, and be issuing a progress report on Iraq every two
weeks. He'll report on what
progress we are having on de-Baathification, disarming the Shia militias, on taking
the fight to the bad guys in a very methodical way.
To lose this war is to lose our
soul. The soul of our country, the
soul of America. If we lose in Iraq,
the terrorists will be here, the war will be here and among us. But we are not going to lose. We still have an enormously strong hand to
play and we are going to play it.
Conservatives need to understand
that our best days are still in front of us, if we proceed with confidence and
principle. Ours is an ideology of
freedom, and an ideology of freedom is an ideology of joy. Joy and freedom will triumph over fear and
cynicism.
Watching Bush last night and talking to Tony today inspired
me to believe that this president just may drag Americans back into adulthood
once again. A nation that hates its
Horatios is already in grave danger of losing its soul. GW's determination to succeed in Iraq may
enable our nation to regain it.
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