I started researching the

I started researching the the "common denominator of history's tragedies", which includes the rise and fall of empires, in 1945 and found it in an economics textbook, in the fraudulent definition of economic efficiency, in 1985.

All empires, including the Roman, have risen and collapsed because of their own false definitions of economic efficiency.

All forms of competition raise costs and because of this, all competitive systems will burn out and fall.

As we can now document in great detail with the present self destruction of the American
empire and its satellites. Including of Canada if we keep the present fools in power, tying us to a dying horse.

Ed Deak.

G West:

To take your analogy one step further - "Lady Liberty" is now like one of those hookers that looks great across the street but as you go closer you start to realize what a horrible shadow of her former self she has become. Truth, justice and democracy are like little more than garish facepaint and a wig. The scary thing is, in both cases there are still willing companions that will feed the addictions of the woman/empire.

A sad fact.

The Roman Empire, which lasted about 1000 years, imploded in about 1 year. The British empire lasted about 150 years, faded away in about 25 years. The American Empire, which was established in 1945, will take about 50 years to erode away.

The Americans live in fairy tale world of Hollywood and CNN, money and power is their creed. Unfortunately the stuff of empire (which the USA originally opposed) is lost on them and their monarchy (OOPS democracy) is built on wealth and greed; intelligence is no longer a factor.

We are watching the gut wrenching end to the USA as a hyper-power, but then nature abhors a vacuum and I think the Chinese empire will soon arise.

Greed ans the list for money has killed the dream of those in 1776!

More pressures to 'move'....

Many of these same 'pressures' for rhyming with history were written about in the mid 1990's.

The Sovereign Individual, while dated reads now like a review of the past decade.

Making Homeland come off like a very realistic appraisal of the dark future yet to come...

Good article

Sounds like a good read. I know that because I can't find anything to disagree with. Have to add that to the summer list.

And Rome didn't really fall in a year. It was an increasingly false front with a rotting core. Eventually someone came along to kick in the door and the whole rotting structure fell.

Limits of Empire

The Iraq fiasco has shown to the world that, despite their extraordinary military spending, U.S. power has its limits and is easy to obstruct. Only 5 years ago it seemed that America was indeed a new hegemon, able to do whatever it wanted in the world. Now they have their tail between their legs and the forces that oppose the U.S. (many of whom are far scarier than the Americans) have increased confidence and power. The end of the American empire is getting close.

One thing that has allowed imperialism to flourish in the U.S. is that, in terms of American lives, it has cost them so little. But Iraq has shown that their military forces, as expensive as they are, are insufficient to fight a real full-scale war. They need conscription, and if they ever try to re-institute the draft to fight a foreign war, the domestic political landscape will change very quickly. If and when large numbers of young American men and women face an early death to support foreign adventures dreamed up by middle-aged Washington power-brokers, things will get interesting in the U.S.A.

Why not at least mention Dennis Kucinich?

I am told he is too "radical". Check this out: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7381839872895833546&hl=en

With respect, Grumpy...

...the Roman empire took no less than 80 years to fall, and some commentators link the beginning of the decline to civil unrest among both rich and poor to the deflation caused by Aurelius, who made Rome's gold near-worthless by devaluing it with baser metals in the 160s to pay for foreign wars.

This meant that the empire had to expand ever more rapidly in order to pay for the populace at home, both rich and poor, to be kept in the style to which they had become accustomed. This expansion cost the treasury heavily, and diminishing returns meant that Rome eventually had to find other ways to raise funds or pay mercenaries. This they did by eventually promising Roman citizenship to those war vets who retired after a certain age, regardless of their nationality.

There are so many, many aspects to the fall of the Roman empire, but the treasure of it is how minutely it was documented, by so many excellent writers, which gives us the manifold points of comparison that we use today to trace the decline of the American (and British) empires in exactly the same manner, by exactly the same means.

Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.....

732 Military Bases Worlwide

Prof. Johnson excellent books are chilling. Over 700 US military bases girdle the globe. With some of the best golf courses and swimming pools anywhere. Hosting US military forces of nearly a million. His impartial analytic writing style is as chilling as the facts he shares. Well worth the read. Thanks Mr. Killian and the Tyee. Funny how this book never made it into a CanWestGlobal reveiw!!

Pre-Emptive War

The scary thing is the U.S., as described in the book and article, also has a strategic defense strategy that syas it will strike at those countries who threaten, or have a goal of threatening the U.S. militarily and economically.

So may we look forward (in horror!) to pre-emptive strikes at China and India for example?

Will we face a pre-emptive strike from the U.S. if we decide not to sell them oil and/or water?

The future looks bright, nuclear blast bright-shades won't help!!!

Anti-imperialism

Kucinich might not be either electable or a savior, but anti-imperialism is an attractive message, readily contrasted with the increasingly hopeless news emanating from Iraq, and, I think, is becoming more widespread.

The Republican Kucinich, Ron Paul, is an intriguing and increasingly popular presence. He isn't electable either, but I think (or maybe just hope) that his rigorously small-government message (with the corollary that government has no business starting wars) is having a profoundly salutory effect on the conservative movement in America.

Why Tyee is needed

This was an excellent review and of a book not noticed yet by the corporate media. Again the Tyee shows its worth (with no small help from Killian, I might add).

The decline of the United States has been ongoing for some time now. Its not simply portrayed by its imperialism; it is demonstrated by the social deterioration within the States itself. The increasing wealth gap is possibly the least noted, but the most demonstrative. A culture focused on defining others to blame cannot begin to perceive its own weaknesses. In the "tweedle dum, tweedle dee" competition between Republicans and Democrats, even discussion of internal weaknesses is verboten.

The myth of an advanced society is continually put to the test by these failures. How can a society be taken seriously as a leader when large percentages of its population still believe the earth is but 6000 years old and dinosaurs co-existed with humans? How can a society were racist attitudes continuously bubble to the surface ever be credited with leading human progress. The wars in Asia have morphed into a war against anyone of of the Islamic faith; the immigration concerns are as much reactions against those of Hispianic heritage as any honest desire to control access to the States.

My point is this. The military preoccupation south of the border is made all the more dangerous to all of us because of the internal deterioration of civil society within the United States. Ironically, it may mean that Harper's militarism may be good policy, if only to defend Canada from the barbarian hordes to the immediate south!

Of course you're right, Munroe. But I was

reacting to Johnson's goofy comparison of the United States to the Roman Empire (Who cares?; its a different world now, eh) and other foolishness such as Linda McQuaig's bizarre claim that America's intervention in the Middle East is about the "Oil, dummy," when the oil will always be for sale regardless of whether America destroys all of its aircraft carriers and refuses to send a single soldier overseas--or not. American's foreign and domestic agenda has not been in its best interests in the last 30 years or so, and its political candidates do not hold dear the priorities of its own citizens.

The best example is that the Bush Administration has basically told the American people to go to hell and mind their own business over the Iraq war, and even the Democrats are too beholden to somebody besides their own constituents to cut off the blood money and end the war.

thanks

We have similar views, Truman. I agree on the Roman comparison. I'm not on side on your analysis of McQuaig. Simple purchase is quite different from control and unfettered access, but that's a different topic.

I do think American poitics and the American polity cannot address the problems Bush's foreign policy has created. Certainly blood money is an important part of the equation, but it goes beyond that to the self-image and culture of the States.

What about Canada?

Prof. Johnson's analysis is too accurate to be permitted real media attention. The New York Times did not review the book either.

Most of the comments above relate to the situation in the US, but as G West wrote, Canada seems happy to take the easy route to propserity by supplying the oil and other materials needed to keep the war machine running. And with the Cons in power, Canada is openly supporting the "war on ." The Liberals, being skillful hypocrites, have nearly always managed to say they oppose US policies while encouraging Canadian corporations to provide whatever equipment and services the US military may need.

So whatever the fate of the US, Canada will be drawn in. How can that be avoided? Is it possible to orient the Canadian economy more toward Europe and Asia? Can NAFTA be nullified? How do we respond to the slur of "anti-American" when we raise these issues? WADR, these are more critical concerns for progressive Canadians than the candidacies of Kucinich and Paul.

On that very subject

We can withdraw from NAFTA on 6 months notice.

James Laxer deals with several of the possible consequences (and some of the problems associated with continuing along our present course) here:
http://www.jameslaxer.com/2007/03/mission-of-folly-chapter-10-toward-new.html

He's dealing mostly with sovereignty issues but it's vital not to ignore the importance of continental trade and the NAFTA.

This paragraph sums it up well - and isn't all that different from what you and I have written:

Other Reviews

You're right avandoc, the NYTimes didn't review Nemesis - although it did appear in slot # 15 for at least one week on their best selling non-fiction list.

There was a review (by Jon Freedland) of it, and two other books, in the New York Review of Books, if you're interested.
I think it may be online still:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/20251