Junior Mob apologists, from the former vice-president and his spawn to ex-mouthpieces and media enablers, continue to claim that the policies of the Obama administration (actually policies of the Junior administration, but why spoil a good narrative) are making the US vulnerable to another terror attack.
In hopes that some in that camp may stumble across it in their assiduous oppo research, I'd like to relate a little story. An old, old story.
Long before Hannibal crossed the Alps or Caesar the Rubicon, the Roman Republic suffered a devastating attack from the North that struck at the very heart of its existence.
In 387 B.C., Gallic Celts had overrun northern Italy, taking over Etruscan territories and menacing the city of Rome. An army of 24,000, led by Quintus Sulpicius, met the Gauls at Allia and were routed, many slaughtered. The survivors fled to sound the alarm in the city. Many citizens made their to the Capitoline Hill to prepare for siege, while most fled the city entirely.
The Gauls entered and occupied the city, merrily looting and wrecking for seven months. As expected, they lay siege to Capitoline Hill, attempting several attacks on the Roman defenders. One night, their attempt almost succeeded, for the defenders were given no warning by the watch dogs set to guard the Hill.
Only the cries of the sacred geese at the temple of Juno wakened the Romans and warned them of the approaching Gauls in time to thwart the attack.
Finally, the besieged Romans bought off the Gauls with a thousand pounds of gold and got their city back. The events were burned forever in civic memory.
So much so that for more than three centuries afterward the citizens of the Republic would set aside a day of remembrance each spring when hundreds of dogs were crucified along the Appian Way, proxies punished for the dereliction of the guard dogs that night. Geese were brought, seated on purple silk pillows, to witness.
To the moderns who've taken the name Republicans:
While you are free to make your speeches and snipe at the leaders our citizens have chosen to clean up the messes you left, please don't delude yourself that we will somehow forget who was set to guard our capitol. We remember the dogs who snored away the night in our hour of peril, and all your attempts at transference won't erase the memory.
Don't worry, though. We're not quite as blood-thirsty as the Romans. Besides, I doubt Richard Clarke would really enjoy riding on a purple pillow.