How was ancient Athens like the Bush administration?

There is someone more long winded than Jazz, pessimist at The Left Coaster. Like Jazz he is usually worth the read and today's post is no exception, We Have All Been Here Before. I'm going to snip out a "small" piece below that pessimist got from Pull No Punches.com, but the entire post is worth a read.

In 431 BC, the Greek world went to war against Athens. Thucydides claims that the reason for war was the �growth of Athenian power and the fear which this caused.� The Athenians were a proud people who had ultimate faith in their institutions. They saw themselves as a model upon which the whole Greek world should mold itself. �I would prefer ...that you fix your eyes everyday on the greatness of Athens as she really is,� stated Pericles, �and you shall fall in love with her.�
The problem for Athens was that the majority of city-states in the Greek world did not share the Athenian vision. To most of the city states, especially those within the Delian League, Athens was an arrogant, power-hungry entity that would do anything to keep and maintain power. Athens bullied members of the Delian League into providing cash for security.
The brutal actions of Athens toward the people of Lesbos and Melos sparked uprisings all over the empire. Although much of these were suppressed by Athens, this weakened the great democracy, eventually bringing a tragic defeat to the once mighty empire. Athens had to give up all colonies and the people were forced to stand by as the tattered remains of their glorious navy was put to the torch.
History has a way of repeating itself. I am afraid that we are setting a course for the same fate that Athens experienced in the 5th century B.C. And recent events in Fallujah have only helped clarify that idea in my mind.

While rereading Pericles� funeral oration from Book 2 of The Peloponnesian War, I could see George W. Bush, standing in front of a joint session of Congress or on the deck of an aircraft carrier. The locations may have changed, but much of the rhetoric is the same: we are great, the world envies us because we are free, the world wants to be like us, we don�t have to apologize for anything, we are the greatest idea to ever become a reality. Same basic ideas broken only by 2,500 years of history.

In Fallujah, we are battling insurgents who are rebelling against our empire. But we are not only killing insurgents, but women and children�entire families are being gunned down as they try to flee their burning city. We came to liberate them from Saddam, yet in the process of their �liberation� some 100,000 Iraqi civilians have now died. We are punishing the very people we are purportedly �liberating.�

History certainly does repeat itself if you let it.