Crunch of bone, tear of sinew...

Not even the redoubtable Roman Legions occupied as many countries or had as much raw killing power as does the "Best Military in the World" (our own definition)that of the United States of America.

Listening to our generals and admirals one soon finds out that no armed forces on the planet are as brave or intelligent or well trained as we are. Everybody knows that.

Don’t they?

We have thousands of expensive jet fighters and bombers which can smash whole neighborhoods to smoldering rubble, gattling-gunned helicopters, tanks and other armored vehicles with rapid fire .50 calliber guns, bazookas, flame throwers, cluster bombs and gas shells, humvees and stingers.

We can bring down a mosque or a hospital with ease, and riddle a hundred fleeing insurgents from vast distances without a second’s thought. We’ve got smart bombs and sharpshooting snipers with night vision glasses and powerful rifles and sidearms.

In short, we’re invincible.

There are just a few things we can’t manage to do.

We can’t actually WIN a war, we can’t defeat a band of young rebels with sweat shirts and ancient rifles and homemade explosives, we can’t train another country’s Army to do a great job and we can’t find troops who are noble enough to avoid raping, stealing and torturing in the course of their actions.

Not all of them, of course. Some fight nobly and bravely, get wounded or killed or just come home to find a cheating wife, a crooked business partner or just get so depressed because they lost an arm or leg or eye that they blow their heads off.

I don’t think the Romans thoght much about that sort of thing.