[Skywalk]

I disagree somewhat.

I don't think most are saying the US will fall in the same way as Rome, and be dissolved into a new grouping of polities or cultures, but to say that it will be reduced in stature, that what made it American will pass is not doomsaying.

I have no problem looking towards Rome as an example because they are certainly a more comparable model than, say, the Eastern civilizations. I mean, I don't see what lessons we can glean from the dissolution of the Mauryans or the Cham kingdom.

[breakem]

The lessons of Rome are don't split the country into three parts and don't try to control distant territories using local warriors as your surrogate army.

The moral and personal responsibility issues are just an excuse for those who want us to be vigilent and are only tangential issues in the fall of Rome. The military, territorial, and European demographics issues are so immense that everything else is insignificant.

Some people in the US need to keep us on the alert for decay. Hard to fault their motivation, just their sense of history.

If you need a historical analogy, why not use the british empire of France or the Dutch. Or better yet the Soviet Union. We certainly don't want to be like them.

[Cronos]

The Cham kingdom? The Mauryan Empire was in India, correct? With some ancient version of Macchiavellis Chanakay something.