Re: September 11th ring a bell?
Here are the main lessons from history:
1) No matter how powerful, states eventually overextend themselves externally, while paying only lip service to its original values internally. The combined action destabilizes the organization of that state. Like a house with termites, it eventually just crumbles away, or reorganizes on a far more modest level.
2) Attempts to intimidate a populace who are determined to defend their homes, fail - either outright, or in the subtle form of adopting the very culture of the occupied people (this is rare). You can't bomb their morale away - the only way to succeed is to uproot the entire population - something we sort of did with the Indians, something the Germans failed to do in Poland, having understimated the bottom line of their final solution.
Expeditions of intimidation to the Middle East have been attempted. They failed because 1) they cost too much 2) the defenders always have an enormous advantage 3) blind zealotry made the attackers short-sighted and stupid and eventually unable to sustain the attack.
