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Article: Fighting identity: why we are losing our wars.(Viewpoint essay)
- Article from:
- Military Review
- Article date:
- November 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 U.S. Army CGSC. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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THE PLACE: The River Frigidus, in a country we now call Bosnia. The time: autumn, 394. Two Roman emperors. Theodosius I and Eugenius, are at war, with the world in the balance. A deciding factor: Alaric's Gothic tribal militia. His shock troops storm the laager where Eugenius's soldiers shelter, defeating them and reuniting the empire under Theodosius. But reveling in their strength, the Goths soon take on the imperial state itself. Rome contains them only when the emperor's sister. Galla Placidia. weds the Gothic leader and Visigoths are made Roman in Aquitaine. (1)
Nine centuries later. A wholly extravagant man, Roger de Flor. seals a deal with Andronicus II, ...