is America the new Rman Empire?

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Unless you're counting Han Chinese policy of annexing buffer states around the Han center of China -- to make up mainland China -- I can't think of a single surviving example. The Soviet Union was the other one, and look what a fistful of states are there now.

What is the foundation of our dominance? It's entirely that we are good at trade, mutually beneficial transaction, large scale or small. That's the only thing we've ever done with consistency or persistence. Unlike Charlemagne, we regard warfare as an aberrant crisis and not the regular state of affairs.

[bluecuracao]

Originally Posted by Urbane Guerrilla

we regard warfare as an aberrant crisis

I would laugh if I actually thought you believed that.

That's a compliment, by the way.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Originally Posted by bluecuracao

I would laugh if I actually thought you believed that.

That's a compliment, by the way.

I don't mind; laughter is a good gift to give -- get a good start on your 2007.

We Americans regard a state of war as an abnormal and unfortunate state of affairs. Which does not make us peaceniks, merely sensible. Not, I think, uniquely so, but sensible nonetheless. Bear in mind wars invariably devour wealth; it's a war-college tenet that the execution, prosecution, and evolution of a war is at bottom economic. The winner, as a rule, is that economy that can endure the greater damage, or suffers the less damage.