“We should also remember that we are only now enjoying some respite from a great pestilence and from war, to no small benefit of our estates and persons, and that it is right to employ these at home on our behalf, instead of using them on behalf of these exiles whose interest it is to lie as well as they can, who do nothing but talk themselves and leave the danger to others, and who if they succeed will show no proper gratitude, and if they fail will drag down their friends with them…
…That for the future, we do not enter into alliances, as we have been used to do, with people whom we must help in their need, and who can never help us in ours.” - First Speech of Nicias [Thucydides, 6.12-13]
Thus the great Athenian statesman Nicias argued against the disastrous Sicilian invasion, which cost Athens the flower of her military, her empire, and ultimately her walls.
It is quite hard to know where to begin on Ukraine. One can only unpack so much absurdity at once. I didn’t have a computer for…
