Are we destined for the same fate as that other empire?
At the end of World War II, the US enjoyed geopolitical supremacy unmatched since the Roman empire. Friends and foes had been devastated by the war: millions dead, thousands of towns and cities destroyed, commercial and industrial infrastructure decimated. The only conflict on US soil was Pearl Harbor. Total war casualties were comparatively light. The US had the atomic bomb. American industry was intact, could quickly be retooled for production of civilian goods, and would face limited competition in global markets.
Power corrupts in direct relation to the degree of power; absolute power corrupts absolutely. That leaves only one direction for the occupant of a summit: down. That would be the proper starting point for some future Edward Gibbon, writing a magnum opus on the decline and fall of the American Empire.
This wonderful situation saw the USSR dominate not only Eastern and Central Europe but East Asia as well. It expanded its influence into the Middle East and other areas as the US pushed the breakup of the colonial empires for “a better world.”America’s victory created massive instability throughout the world because we fought the wrong people.
American causalities were relatively light, spoken like a true rear area pogue or better yet an academic who has never seen a battlefield. One tires of these trumped up Napoleons who have never served, have never wanted to serve and whose knowledge of war and strategy comes from reading Mad magazine’s spy vs spy.