XPost: alt.books.cs-lewis, rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: dd@dandrake.com   
      
   On Fri, 13 Apr 2007 21:24:27 UTC, "William Cloud Hicklin"   
    wrote:   
      
   > On Fri, 13 Apr 2007 16:13:42 -0400, Dan Drake  wrote:   
   >   
   > > Yes, they don't. Worse: Victor Davis Hanson, the famous classicist and   
   > > op-ed writer, recently (in connection with the movie, of course) called   
   > > Thermopylae a heroic last defense of freedom. ...   
   >   
   > I wouldn't call the Spartan system "freedom," not by a long stretch.   
   >   
      
   Yes, that and their mission really being a sacrificial political play to   
   show the rest of the Greeks that they really *were* taking part in the   
   defense as promised, when the actual plan was to stay back and defend   
   their nice peninsula. Or such was the received reading when I took the   
   course, and it holds together.   
      
   Go tell the Spartans, we took your orders and we're dead.   
   There was even a Vietnam movie with a title taken from that.   
      
      
      
   --   
   Dan Drake   
   dd@dandrake.com   
   http://www.dandrake.com/   
   porlockjr.blogspot.com   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)