Many people act like the world changed on 9-11.  It didn't (at least if you were not a historically myopic American).  We are not the first nation to endure terrorism, and we won't be the last.  And europe was was not any better at dealing with terrorism at first then we are now.  The difference is that most european nations learned from their mistakes.  Not even to say that everything is peachy.  Spain, for exapmple, needs to realize that Franco is not in charge anymore, and start treating the basques with a least a little bit of respect.  But I have much more faith in them being able to solve their terror problems, mainly because the political system is just more transparent in a parliamentary system.  Also, the people of europe simply seem to be more politically aware and willing to do the work that it takes to clean up the mess.  It's really frustrating that the general reply that I get when I try to talk about anything political in this country is either "They are all crooks, its pointless to try to fight it" or "None of it really matters to me, I just try to live my life".

   Just as a side note, although the levels of violence inside roman borders was low during the "Pax Romanus", things probably wouldn't have looked very peaceful if you were a non-roman living near their borders.  Chalmers Johnson has very good chapter in his latest book comparing the Roman Empire, British Empire, and the current American Empire.  I don't have too much time to write about it, but in essence it talks about the way that each empire justified preemptive war against their neighbors as" keeping the peace" and how the first two were both brought down by an unchecked military industrial complex, and an inability to deal with extreme wealth disparity.  Recommend checking it out if you see it at the library or bookstore.