Free Republic

History does not whisper. It warns. Empires do not collapse because of a single moment of weakness. They erode from within, slowly hollowed out by overreach, moral ambiguity and the false belief that their power exempts them from consequence. The question before us is not whether America is strong. It is whether we are wise enough to endure the burden that comes with being the world’s lone superpower. Scores of empires have come before us. Each one believed itself indispensable. Each one believed its reach was justified. And each one eventually fell, often not at the hands of foreign enemies...

March 31, 2002 All Roads Lead to D.C. By EMILY EAKIN The Associated Press Emperor Commodus receiving homage in ancient Rome, as imagined in a scene from the movie "Gladiator." STRUGGLING to get a handle on American foreign policy? For starters, try dusting off your Livy and boning up on the Second Punic War. Or dip into a good history of 19th-century Britain, paying close attention to those dazzling military campaigns in the Middle East — the Battle of Omdurman, say, or the Second Afghan War. Today, America is no mere superpower or hegemon but a full-blown empire in the...