[rangerone314]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eastbay', 'A')bout half of the eligible Americans voted during the last presidential election. Those who bothered to vote had a fuzzy choice between choosing more war or ... more war. They selected .... surprise!: more war.

[eastbay]

Actually what the USA has is a Johnson/Nixon style body count now accumulating. It's the most interesting type of all. It features millions of people getting killed to accomplish absolutely nothing whatsoever.

And Rangerone, I agree with you on one point: I don't particularly care for the new communists. They prance around displaying their 'Che' symbols and have usurped the name 'communist' and twisted it into a culturally destructive ideology devoid of common sense and hope.

The path of progress forged by the USSR was lost sometime during the 70's. Their party leaders too started fiddling. Just like ours are now.

[dorlomin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eastbay', 'A')fghanistan is the premier signal that the empire is cracking. It was among the British empire's final gasps of imperialism, it marked the final breath of the USSR, and future history books may very well mark this disaster as the end of the American Empire too.

Much like fiddling during the inferno, the American public is strangely silent on this and other deadly US military transgressions worldwide. In fact, the American public demanded by a greater than 98% margin the pouring of more gas on the Afghanistan inferno while 'fiddling' mindlessly with pro sports, pop music, and screaming about relatively irrelevant minor social issues.

Afghanistan is the sign that the USA is dying. This should be clear to all.

[dinopello]

America dominates in large part because we KICK-ASS at consumption ! Isn't that weird ? Does anyone disagree?

[eastbay]

dorlomin, I said it was a 'signal' foretelling a coming collapse much like a 'tell-tale sign of trouble on the horizon', not a 'cause'. I suppose I could have been clearer.

[rangerone314]

The Athenian defeat in the campaign at Syracuse in 413 BC didn't signal the collapse of the Athenian empire (which does share a lot in common with the American one). I'd say it was a pretty good warning sign that they were overextending themselves. (They had a far flung economic empire with many client city-states, obligations, and resentful would-be enemies)

The Peloponnesian War went on until 404 BC. The great Athenian empire was dismantled, they lost their foreign possessions. Only the fact that the Spartans were more honorable and merciful than Athen's other enemies (Corinth and Thebers) prevented the destruction of Athens itself and the enslavement of its people.

Athens was singularly powerful in Greece, like the US is singularly powerful in the world. We should be more mindful than the Athenians were to the fact that a pack of wolves can bring down a much larger bear.