In my personal opinion I see America failing fast. We are to divided to come to a rational, united, choice on anytopic. It is seriously sad. Rome was indestructible until it collapsed from the inside, like America is doing today. Im not talking just about the president or party lines. Things like a proper response to 9/11. I've heard people say we should have done nothing. Other people wanted to nuke the entire middle east. What can we do to save this nation. The ironic thing is we are the United States and we are in no way, shape, or form UNITED. The right name should be the divided states. When we can agree on the proper action to take against an enemy.

What will we do when a real threat appears? Like an aggressive super power. We cant handle a 3rd world nation without the general population sneering at the idea of a war after 3,000 dead americans. In some cases pacifists are right. If we want peace we have to create it. By causing war we are bringing it home. We must turn our backs and defend our own nation lets not take the fight to them thats what caused this war. Use our military to defend our homes not destroy others homes.



I dont truly dont know, what do the rest of you think?


(LET POLITICAL STANCE STAY OUT OF THIS POST PLEASE. THIS IS AN ATTEMPT TO UNITE THIS COUNTRY ON THE PROPER ACTION TO KEEP THE COUNTRY SAFE IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH POLITICAL PARTIES.)

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Yes, I am a mindless, Brainwashed, robot,
AKA an American Infantryman.
Yet somehow I think for myself.....

Umm.. way beyond my pay grade to give you a detailed answer, but here is my take on it:

1. External super or major power threat? Not anytime soon. Short list really, Russia, China, India and the EU are the most likely future major powers. But not anytime soon and it's not written in stone that the US relations with them should be hostile. Groundwork for a peaceful coexistance is there.. just needs to be developed.


2. Internal Threat? Highly unlikely. There are checks/balances & safeguards in place to prevent this. If for some reason the Federal govt turns on it's people.. Each State has NationalGuards, if that fails the citizens can fightback since some of us are armed as provided by the current constitution (right to bear arms is the last line of defense).


3. Current terrorist threat? Not nearly powerful enough that they can destroy the USA. Unless...


4. Rogue Nukes is the highest threat that faces the USA. For example.. one bullet in the current Pakistani dictators' head and a bunch of militant religous fanatics will be armed with nukes.


Will the US empire collapse? eventually.. it is inevitable. And like you said, it will first collapse from within just like the Roman empire did. Power does corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
But not in my life time.. probably not in several lifetimes.


It would be very interesting to hear from some of our knowledgeable historians here. Va säger du, Sporky?

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"When I'm in command, every mission is a suicide mission!" -Capt. Zapp Branigan
The United Church of the Latter Day Tangential Tarts

Such a war would unite the nation (not that I would ever want to see such a war fought). Most of the people who oppose the Iraq invasion are not peaceniks; we are just people who don't approve of Bush ignoring the international laws the US freely signed to be bound by and we don't like the idea that we actually pulled the weapon's inspectors so we could invade.

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"George W. Bush surrounds himself with smart people the way a hole surrounds itself with a donut." —Dennis Miller

The U.S.'s most likely downfall will be it's economy. It's in bad shape and were on the verge of world depression and unless the U.S.'s economy really starts to do something special it could be left vulnerable to both it's own people discontent ad outside forces.

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What's this i hear bed? Word has it you and Pam are sleeping together.

Is it possible say for example, if china's economy collapsed that it would send us and much of the world into a depression, resulting in war for a conclusion much like the late 1920's and early 30's?

Are we so dependent on international trade or could we self sustain our economy in the event of most other country's economys going to poo?

__________________
Yes, I am a mindless, Brainwashed, robot,
AKA an American Infantryman.
Yet somehow I think for myself.....