Wow, I am amazed only two or three actual replys and the rest is back forth chum.
I can easily compare some of our presidents to the emperor's I named. Clinton being one, Kennedy another, etc.
Clinton has been accused of rape, he was sexually deviant in the white house, the senators and representatives have monetarily raped the citizens of this country, etc.
Rome actually fell, due to lack of communication as we have discussed before. (not the complete cause, but a major player)
Greed, apathy, mistrust, moral corruption, plumbing, etc were all contributors. At one poin the Roman Empire covered most of the known world. Rome had sprung from a hill and a small group of people into the greatest civilization ever to have ruled upon the earth. And due to the inability to communicate effectively, the decline started.
This decline was further perpetuated with emperor's who were pyschotic, morally corrupt (Caligula, Comodus), a greedy senate that was supposed to represent the people, yet they represented themselves. To be sure there were good emperor's during the decline, (Marcus Arelius and others) it was too late.
Perhaps we can look to the past to succeed in the future.
A common theme I have noticed here and in other places is this:
Oh the United States fall? Never, not at this time, we are too great, that won't happen yet, we are too strong, we are not like them (Roman Empire), etc.
So, apparently we have not learned from the past and are doomed to repeat it.
Russia cannot quite be compared to the Roman Empire nearly as efficiently as the US, if, at all.
Rome at one time had balls of steel, and the fear of the world at their power. The US has never quite had balls of steel (except when absolutely needed) and has lost the element of fear in the world.
I am also dismayed at how people are not willing to even entertain that maybe, just maybe, the US has a major problem and that we are starting the downward spiral.
The fall of the Roman Empire was not spectacular, it did not come about from a single battle or even many battles. It was more mundane, quiet, sinister. It happened over time. It was slow and methodical without even the rulers realizing that Rome was decaying and dying until Rome had died from the cancer that had spread within.
Had they recognized the disease early on and treated it they may have survived to this day. But, they did not recognize that they had a problem and if they did they did little if anything to treat the problem. Just as some here fail to recognize the US has a problem, a disease if you will, that is slowly, methodically eating at us and killing us. One day, some future generation will be born into a world in which they will grow up studying our existence and why we too failed.
So, my message to those who would fail to recognize the US is in trouble, learn from the past, for if we do not, we will repeat it.