We're doomed.

[RallyeMike]

Empires have a habit of doing this.  Military expansion works great to grow the empire's wealth and power at first.  But diminishing returns from continued expansion --> borrowing money from other nations -->  currency inflation to reduce the value of the debt -->  crumbling empire.

If by this you mean to compare to the US, we pretty much stopped expanding by use of military force 100+/- years ago. Sure we go out and sack some helpless place every now and then, or have a show of force, but after we romp around and give a few speeches, we leave.

[nh_mopar_fan]

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.

The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.
Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage."

                                                            -Attributed to ALEXANDER FRASER TYTLER, LORD WOODHOUSELEE. 
                                                              Unverified.                                                                 

[Hissing Cobra]

I've said it at least a hundred times. Since 9/11, this country has really gone to shit. Bush couldn't run his college education, ran his baseball team into the ground and then took over the country with his poor decisions. Obama was handed this disaster and it's now a runaway train.

[bull]

I've said it at least a hundred times.

Not here, unless you said it twice per post.

Also, according to JK we only bash Democrats here so you're outta line.

[Mike DC]

Quote
Empires have a habit of doing this.  Military expansion works great to grow the empire's wealth and power at first.  But diminishing returns from continued expansion --> borrowing money from other nations -->  currency inflation to reduce the value of the debt -->  crumbling empire.

If by this you mean to compare to the US, we pretty much stopped expanding by use of military force 100+/- years ago. Sure we go out and sack some helpless place every now and then, or have a show of force, but after we romp around and give a few speeches, we leave.

We've just perfected the art of indirectly "conquering" a country without ostensibly doing so.  We have military bases all over the world and we exert control over politics & economies in many of those same places.  When far-future history students are learning about the American empire, their textbook maps of our territory will have a lot more areas highlighted than just the 50 states on our flag.    

Our powers peaked in WWII and the early Cold War era.