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To generally analogize the two is far too simplistic. That is not to say there aren’t things to be learned from the fall of the worlds first real attempt at some form of democracy on a large scale.

There are plenty of analogies between Rome and the United States. They are just not the ones people usually try to make, basically what goldstategop points out. The similarities between the two are far to granular to simply say “The US is like Rome” without getting pretty specific and excluding the whole “empire” notion. That was the rise of Rome. I would submit that what similarities there are would mostly be found in the fall of Rome and deal mostly with it’s society than its government or military.

I would submit that what similarities there are would mostly be found in the fall of Rome and deal mostly with it’s society than its government or military.

Most analogizers on this front love to equate Rome's political authority over foreign nations as somehow equivalent to America's alliances with foreign nations - which makes no sense.

Most analogizers on this front also like to equate Rome's exaction of tribute from subject peoples to the free commerce we enjoy with other sovereign nations - also preposterous.

One can point to the decline of Rome's moral fiber in its decadence and the moral issues the US deals with in our prosperity, but this is endemic to human nature.

I would submit that what similarities there are would mostly be found in the fall of Rome and deal mostly with it’s society than its government or military.

Although there are many differences, it is exactly right to point out the importance of the similarities. And there are even some big ones in the military.

As Rome moved from a very citizen-involved military to an auxiliary-based army and finally to mercenaries, our military is perhaps following an analogous path.

One of the first steps of this was the change in recruiting focus to "money for college"--it's no wonder they didn't receive as many people whose motivation was service if they didn't appeal to that population in ads. Now, the signing bonuses are at record levels--despite our Active Duty military being only 1/25 the size of WWII's...and the population much larger. I don't mean to besmirch those who stay in because of these bonuses, but I do think that there's some analogy to resorting to mercenaries rather than sense of duty. As an aside, I see that others are mentioning this, although with a different spin, perhaps.

And now, the US law has been changed to allow the military to go out and recruit foreigners... Already, about 100 of the deaths of US service personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan have been non-citizens.