> Taliban delenda est!
Which translates into English as...?
Jeroen
"The Taliban must be destroyed." It's a reference to Cato the Elder, who
ended every speech he made in the Roman Senate (translated, and from
memory, so I might be off by a little bit) "and after all of these things,
Carthage must be destroyed." The last of which is often quoted, "Carthago
delenda est!" The consequence of this was the Third Punic War, which ended
with Rome smashing the Carthaginian armies, destroying Carthage itself,
sowing the ground with salt, and selling the population off as slaves. The
message - don't screw with the Romans - was fairly clear. The consequence
was Rome's complete domination of the Mediterranean world. Note the
significant difference in what John is saying - he's advocating an attack
on a regime, as opposed to a country. It seems fairly clear that the
people of Afghanistan themselves would be very happy if the American
government helped the Northern Alliance overthrow the Taliban.
This is a non-trivial piece of European history, Jeroen. You have
occasionally commented on the ignorance of Americans of history and the
world around them. If John and I (both products, I believe, of the
American public school system - I certainly am) knew the reference (from
European history, no less) and you didn't, you might want to rethink that
position.
Gautam
