Just as the Roman Empire spent larger and larger amounts on its army, driving up the public debt and devaluing the currency, so the United States finds itself at a similar crossroads of history. At the end of the Republic, Rome made the mistake of opting for military hegemony over what was then a global empire. The unsustainable financial burden* of this path (among other possible contributory causes) eventually weakened the state to the point that even professional legions could not hold back the barbarian hordes. Maintaining the stalemate with the Parthian/Sassanid Empire (Persia) was particularly draining of Roman resources. Today, one will be interested to know what the conservative reaction will be to the proposed trillion dollar cutin the US defense budget, far and away the world's largest, partly because of two wars on the current Middle East border.
*"It's time to stop talking about fiscal discipline and national security threats as if they're separate topics: debt is a national security threat, one of the greatest we know of," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer , D-MD, said in a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Unsustainable debt has a long history of toppling world powers." www.thecable.foreignpolicy.com