New Rome

[Jack Sprat]

It would seem we are in the empire business now, stretching the kingdom to the Tigris. Much like ancient Rome, the far provinces can be conquered with our legions with little problem. Yet, establishing frontier outposts and bases and maintaining an army of occupation with mercenaries is now and will always be terribly expensive. Not only are increased taxations required to maintain the empire, the conquered will continue to resist as most conquered tribes would be expected to do. When the legions are spread too thin and the economy becomes too strained under the weight of empire, the foreign tribes will possibly form allied armies like the Goths and Vandals of old and attack the weakened gates of Rome itself. I think we might be wise to pay attention to history.

[roamer65]

1. We all know what happened to Rome.

The same is happening now to the Amerikan empire.

[Fovea]

2. What killed Rome will kill American empire

Like a law of thermodynamics, empire never manages to break even.

Oil is like grain. It is the thing that keeps the plebeians from rising up. I think we are going to see more sorts of executive chicanery over the money supply, interest rates, and regulation before things get better.

That is, assuming things get better. Fires burn hotter in pure oxygen-- empire does so in the industrial world.

That low rumbling sound you hear is the collective gathering hunger of the Plebeian class.

[Selatius]

3. Becoming reliant on mercenary armies and imperial overextension destroyed the Roman Empire.

In the later centuries, Rome recruited soldiers often from the populations that were conquered years and sometimes centuries earlier. This created a situation where some would break away or rebel and use the very same Roman battle tactics against Romans. Mercenaries like Titan, Blackwater, CACI, etc. can have loyalties bought off. Machiavelli's opinion of mercenaries was rather low for a reason.

The US has something like 730 military outposts in the world today. That's a vast amount of territory to keep watch over, and the US government is currently spending itself deeper into debt to maintain its worldwide presence. Eventually, either the citizens will be forced to pay more in blood and treasure, or the "colonial possessions" will have to be surrendered like Rome surrendering Britain so that the legions could be used elsewhere to help keep a beleaguered Empire from collapsing inward like a black hole.

Rome chose to try to keep its empire rather than pull back. Now it is nothing more than a memory.

[jwirr]

4. For a good read on this try: The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers:

Economic Change and Military Conflict From 1500 to 2000" by Paul Kennedy and "The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic" by Chalmers Johnson. These two books are our future if we do not listen to the authors.