Opinion: Can an imperial America survive for long?

11/3/2004Hail, Emperor Bush!

The American plebes have spoken. The masses are adorning and more than 51 percent are armed and ready to tackle another four years of preemptive war, privatization, globalization, tax cuts, deficit, and the most partisan polarization the nation has seen since President Nixon.

These policies represent the most radical re-evaluation of domestic and foreign policies since the end of World War II. We battled in Vietnam, built bomb shelters during the cold war, landed on the moon, and stretched the ideologies of capitalism and democracy across the globe. But American sovereignty seems to be moving toward imperialist policies which resemble a superpower that fell more than fifteen hundred years ago: The Roman Empire.

Our modern day gyms filled with treadmills and step aerobics are comparable to the Roman baths, where citizens could embrace leisurely activities. Both empires have extremely complex road systems. Each recognize women's rights and hold supposed democratic elections. The Roman theatre attracted citizens by carnage and violence, which has extreme parallels to the American obsession with reality television -- watch "Fear Factor" and you'll see young adults swimming in pools of tarantulas and mealworms.

Historians give a plethora of reasons as to why Rome fell, but the most common ones are: inflation, security, and military expansion. As Rome began to expand and divide into the east and the west, the empire sought more military power. It needed soldiers to guard borders, as well as mobile troops which could battle frequent skirmishes with barbarians. As the army grew, so did the need to pay that army. While running out of gold, the empire began to produce coins of silver and bronze. Inflation began to appear as the empire produced more and more coins to pay their expanding military and eventually the value of their currency dropped dramatically. Sound familiar?

The United States deficit increases daily, oil prices have risen 50 percent since 2001, and the value of the American dollar is decreasing, while the value of the euro has risen 40 percent. Although in a campaign promise, Mr. Bush said he intends to cut the federal deficit by half in five years, the looming permanent tax cuts would make this task nearly impossible.

Since 1947, the United States has been increasing its military strength exponentially. America now has 725 military bases spread throughout the globe in 120 countries. We are fighting wars on multiple fronts and a severe shortage of troops is not far -- for the first time since 1994 the National Guard has not met its recruitment expectations. In the end Rome's military wore so thin, that it sacrificed the safety of its people and enabled barbarians to take over.

Rome's lack of security also threatened its commerce and ability to trade. Security is essential for commerce, and as stocks continue to drop while spending continues to rise, the U.S. Department of the Treasury is religiously writing IOUs. Commercial imperialism, under the guise of globalization, threatens to send more American jobs overseas and enables American corporations to conquer the economies of other nations.

The United States does not have a monarchy, nor is it at the threshold of its demise. But if current policies continue, we run the risk of not only destroying the countries we occupy, but obliterating ourselves in the process. If the administration does not learn a lesson from its imperial predecessors, the fall from superpower to no power may not be that far away.