In 1952 Professor Arnold Toynbee predicted that Western civilization would be attacked by barbarian war bands. His claim was based upon his observations, published in "A Study Of History," that all declining civilizations became subject to attacks by barbarian war bands, and as Western civilization was declining, it too would be attacked.

On the 11th September 2001 Toynbee was proved right as 2,752 people were killed in a deliberate suicidal attack by a barbarian war band that destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York.

A civilization is a community that manages to impose its beliefs upon its neighboring communities by violence. Violence is necessary because this is the only way someone can be made to act against their own beliefs; and as a community is a shared set of beliefs, the only way one community can impose its understanding on another community is by violence.

For example, some communities believe that women should hide their faces in public, whereas other communities believe women should not hide their faces in public.

Regardless of what proponents of either belief claim, there is no rational way of deciding which belief is correct; so to resolve the issue one side must give way to the other.

Forcing people to act against what they believe requires the use of violence, which of course includes not just the use, but the threat of violence. Anyone who has handed over money at gunpoint will know that threat is an act of violence; so one community can dominate others merely by threat.

This simple principle means that different communities, which harbor different sets of beliefs, are irreconcilable enemies who will attempt to dominate each other through violence. This is why the history of humanity is the history of violent struggles: war.

Ancient Rome was a graphic example of a community that managed to dominate other communities through violence and compel the widespread adoption of its beliefs. 'Pax Romana' was obtained only by the violence inflicted by the Roman Legions upon all those who resisted ancient Roman domination.

The collapse of ‘Pax Romana’ and the Roman Empire started when the ancient Romans recoiled from violence and refused to countenance the mass slaughter of their enemies. Trapped between the advance of the Huns and the river Danube, a natural boundary of the Roman Empire, the Gothic nation faced extinction. Their attempts to force entry into the empire had already been repulsed with heavy losses, so they begged for, and received, from the Emperor Valens, permission to enter the Roman world. This act of mercy, the admission of a huge number of unconquered tribes of barbarians into the precincts of the Roman empire, lead inevitably to the destruction of the empire and the fall of Rome. After the Goths crossed the river they changed from refugees to invaders, killed the Emperor and sacked the Empire.

Hence a civilization can exist only as long as it dominates by violence all other communities, and the moment a dominant community recoils from violence, its rule is challenged. That is, it becomes attacked by all the other communities, in one way or another, as they attempt to assert their beliefs upon the faltering civilization.

Technology has now sped up the nature of war. Once it required massive human effort to conquer a nation by use of arms, now it does not: it requires just resolve and an advantage in technology.

The power of modern weapons means that an unknown attacker can destroy a city in a flash, which means that an undeclared enemy can destroy a group of cities, which is a community, in a flash. Technology has not only dramatically sped up the clash of communities, but it has introduced uncertainty as to the identity of the aggressor.

Now to wage war successfully a community must be ruthless, merciless, resolute and unhesitating: the moment it believes it can smite its enemies is the moment it must act. Otherwise, it will only discover that its enemies have acted when its own cities are incinerated.

Israel, an American ally, has been warned that it will be wiped off the face of the earth by its Iranian neighbor. This means that unless Israel razes Iran, Iran will make good its threat. The choice now facing Israel is the choice now facing all nuclear armed communities: inflict genocide or commit suicide.

American military efforts are now undermined by the timidity of the American nation for Americans fear to employ modern weapons. When General Douglas MacArthur made it clear that victory in Korea could be obtained only by using nuclear weapons, he was hastily removed from command: but he was right. The Korean War was not won, but concluded by a truce that has allowed the enemies of America to improve their weapons and become a much more dangerous threat to the USA than they were in 1953.

The once all-powerful Americans, who ruthlessly incinerated Nagasaki and Hiroshima, have declined into a people who believe nuclear war is 'unthinkable'. This is the opposite view of their enemies who publicly demonstrated their glee at the announcement of 911; imagine their joy at the news that New York had been vaporized: these people dream of wiping out America.

Americans can now easily crush their enemies, but every hour the USA does not use its present superiority in nuclear weapons to dominate other communities, is another hour given to its enemies to develop and use their nuclear weapons to eradicate the American community.

Americans have a choice: use nuclear weapons on their enemies or have their enemies use them on Americans; ruthlessly uphold 'Pax America' or blindly follow 'Pax Romana' into oblivion.

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