Marcus Licinius Crassus provided a classic act of crass stupidity at Carrhae in 53 BC giving his name to the expression “crass”
Marcus Licinius Crassus…2077 years ago. Desperate to make his mark and find a foe large enough to defeat and ride back into Rome in triumph, this idiot led his legions to almost total destruction against the Parthian Empire (modern Iraq and Iran), arrogantly ignoring the advice of his officers to take an alternative route, refusing the offer of thousands of infantry and archers from Armenia and then marching into the desert with no protection against the combined force of powerful Parthian cataphracts, heavily armed cavalry and light cavalry, led by General Surena.
Crassus was too old, at 62, to devise and follow an adequate strategy; he totally underestimated the strength of his adversary, miscalculated the time and place to attack, had no factors in his favour (infantry exposed in an open space fighting against cavalry which surrounded them and fired arrows from all sides). His chief adviser, Ariamnes, who he trusted blindly, was in fact in the pay of the Parthians.
The result? His army of 35,000 heavy infantry, 4,000 light infantry, 10,000 cavalry was decimated. Most were killed (20,000), several thousand were sold as slaves (10,000), some it is believed to China and the rest (20,000) limped back to the frontier of the Roman Empire. Before he was killed, Crassus saw the head of his son Publius displayed on a pole.
Crassus was a despicable man of immense greed, to the point where he would send teams of criminals to commit arson, burning blocks of apartments to the ground, to then buy up the land cheaply and build his own blocks. His greed and recklessness came to a head at Carrhae and his surname, Crassus, coined the phrase “crass stupidity”.
Comparing Biden to Crassus is indeed a tremendous insult to the Roman. Like Crassus, the American has not aged well and has just committed an act of crass stupidity, nay, Bidenesque idiocy. Unlike Crassus, Biden does not possess an iota of Kudos and has zero gravitas and negative emotional intelligence. Crassus was at least able to muster a personal army of seven legions (35 to 42,000 troops) with his own money. What has Biden managed to do?
He was part of the team, with Obomber, which destroyed US foreign policy for decades to come in invading Libya and sending the country with the highest Human Development Index in Africa back to the Stone Age, crawling with terrorists and studded with slave markets. Biden gave his support to the invasion of Iraq. Then he said he was duped. Hardly an excuse, is it?
As for Ukraine, Google up Hunter Biden, Ukraine, Shale Gas, Buresma, transgenic cereals.
The Obomber/Biden administration was in power when the Ukraine issue was settled by Moscow with the Minsk Agreements, namely keeping Ukraine intact and with the Russophone population in the east allowed to keep their religion, culture, traditions and political parties. Kiev signed the agreement then someone (guess who?) said OK now you will not implement it. Fascist forces wearing swastikas and worshiping Hitler appeared in Ukraine. Groups of armed thugs shouted Death to Russians and Jews on the streets. Fascist massacres of Russian-speaking Ukrainians took place. Was this all Ukraine’s doing or someone from the outside egging Kiev on and using the Ukrainians as pawns in a cowardly proxy war against Russia?
Biden has always been insolent, abrasive, unpleasant, rude, a lightweight, diabolical guttersnipe, inconsequential, not very intelligent, limited, in short he comes across as a silly little man who is wholly and totally out of his depth. We saw this in his idiotic act of self-destruction yelling Bring it ON to Trump then making a public spectacle of himself with an exemplary show of idiocy, ineptitude and clownery, before being forced to step aside by his own party. His political career ends in total, sniveling humiliation. Biden is the paragon of failure.
His legacy is the election result in which Trump and his Party won everything there was to win. Not a morsel was left of the Biden sand castle.
Now as regards his foreign policy, the pinnacle of Biden’s idiocy comes in his latest manic decision to allow Ukraine to strike deep inside Russia with American weapons. Is this supposed to de-escalate, or what? No, it is a clear sign that this man (?) who claims to be a Catholic is indeed apparently a psychopathic murderer whose sole intent is to kill or maim as many Russians as possible before he takes his unwanted, disgusting and useless presence to the hole he crawled out from and waits for that gentleman with the fork, horns and tail to call him to inhabit that white-hot corner of Hell reserved for his good self. Biden is an insult to his position, to his country, to Catholicism, to Christianity, to the Ireland he claims to hail from and indeed to Humankind. He is a stain on the face of America and arguably the most hated person in the free world (which is countries untainted by the hand of Satan).
Why doesn’t he fire American missiles directly at Russia and in return watch while his cities are carpet-nuked? And what exactly does he expect to win with this latest act of imbecility?
Sure, Ukraine can respond as it wishes and buy weapons from whom it wishes and use them as it wishes. But the fact that these weapons are provided by a foreign power, with permission to use against Russia, means that the foreign powers supplying the weaponry are directly involved in an attack on Russia. How did the USA like it when missiles were being set up in Cuba? What Biden has done is to provoke Russia into responding. So the first victim will be Ukrainians, which he has used as pawns from the beginning and if Moscow or Saint Petersburg are hit, what is the difference between America striking these cities and a retaliation targeting Washington DC or New York for example? None.
So now what? For a start Ukraine has a limited supply of these American missiles
Secondly, the chief poodles in Europe will obediently follow suit like yapping chihuahuas
But in reality... yesterday of six fired, five were shot out of the sky and one was deflected. This provides useful target practice for Russia’s air defence systems and valuable experience for the future.
However that future, with Biden, is fortunately only two months long. After that we can hope for a period of more sane international relations, without Fascists strutting around committing massacres. However, Biden has already written his political epitaph in great big shining neon letters and like Crassus, has provided the world’s languages with a catchphrase: an act of Bidenesque idiocy.
In conclusion, the only reason why Biden forced himself upon the American people was to hold Trump back for four years. And what has he achieved? Nothing. He ran out of Afghanistan with his tail between his legs leaving a trail of excrement and has used the Ukrainians as cannon fodder in his act of provocation against Russia, a country he so evidently hates. But hate and Biden go together. What to expect from a person who can’t even control his dog?
Bye Bye, Biden…good riddance.
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey can be contacted at timothy.hinchey@gmail.com