A School Assignment

[gamer2]

I know this topic goes against the rules against politics, but i need to do this assignment

Im to take a poll on what people think the US should do. This is an example of "Re-Occuring" history, some people believe we are following the same road as the Roman Empire, due to some paralles

Pretty much rule all of known world
Have troubles with people in Middle East

there are a few others i just have to rember them.

But if we became an empire and we were following the same path as the romans, then we would do better as an Empire, than as a republic.

Chime in your 2 cents

please keep them School appropriate, im using these as part of a presentation


perhaps this can be made into a poll

[SpongeBuell]

ok, I think we can probably keep this... no flaming of any kind will be tolerated, got it? Flamebait will be deleted.

and, for most accurate results, pollifying...

Edit: Also, gamer2, I would strongly recommend clarifying what you are talking about, and giving a background of the whole story.

[cowsgoquack101]

I say yes as history is written and is right all great empires will fall someday. I know that ths US has only been around for a few hundred years and we have made the most technological advances of any other empire. But if we don't rewrite history, then history will repeat itself.

Viva La Canada!

[daguuy]

i say no because rome failed because it was surrounded by enemies. US is surrounded by water. plus if US tried to become an empire, there would be too many revolts and stuff by people who like freedom and it would end up being anarchy. BTW, which aspect of it do you think is becoming like rome?

[psychotic_mechanic]

I'm saying no. (thinking before typing)

I've been to Iraq and seen the mass graves and torture chambers. I have had families that had all of their worldly possessions destroyed in a firefight thank me because now their children won't just vanish one day on the way home from school for saying the wrong thing or not carrying a picture of Saddam in their pocket.

We're not there to build an empire, regardless of how screwed up the intelligence is, was and always will be.

I do however think that Americans as a whole are getting too fat and lazy. Almost no one can actually make something with their hands anymore (present company aside) and would be nothing but a drain on a "Mad Max" society that did not run off of paperwork and lawsuits.

I'm not trying to start any fights about the war here, please think beforetyping like I did and remember that I did spend 7 months over there (with a "fragile" N64 that never missed a beat) before replying.

[Gamelver]

Rome was an empire, with the leaders trying to rule the world, pretty much .

the USA is not trying to rule the world through conquering, though we are the most powerful. If we were like Rome, we'd start taking over places ...Iraq, IMHO, doesn't really count. It's not like we're calling it a part of the US or anything....

[MilkMonster]

No, because, The only people we have to worry about invading is mexico or canada (A third world country and our peace loving brothers to the north). There is no more USSR and China will not invade because they dont want a nuclear war. The reason Rome fell was because of power hungry emperors, the US may get a power hungry president but he can only be around for 8 years, tops.

P.S I was doing a project about propaganda and I thaught this was pretty funny

[sniper_spike]

America, the next Roman Empire? Please. Open your eyes, the EU is what your looking for. Think about it.

[Turbo Tax 1.0]

maybe but i say no because we got this whole checks and balance system and junk like that to keep one person from getting to powerful and yeah, stuff like that

and what milk monster said

[soundwave]

I dare someone to make a list with three reasons in which the US is an empire. You'll get stuck on number 1.

[timmeh87]

for all you people who are so confident that the USA is a fortress because it has some warm water around it, then i have news for you. they have these things now called "boats" and "airplanes", as well as "fighter jets", "submarines", and "intercontinental ballistic missiles". dont get too arrogant.

anyways. i said "no". drawing a parallel because of the middle east thing is kind of a stretch, it might even be sort of racist (are you saying middle eastern people cause empires to crumble?) and yeah. the collapse of the roman empire is a very complicated thing, i dont think there is really any consensus on the cause of it (although there is a specific date - 476 AD) ive heard it blamed on lead pipes, among other things.

The USA is definitely not heading towards a "collapse" like the roman empire, where the goverment and regulation of the empire gradually collapsed into chaos, but they might be headed towards some conflict. a lot of people in the world have some sort of beef with the US. we have already seen terrorist attacks on the US and its allies... perhaps the frequency of such events will increase, perhaps the US will start a few more wars... worst case scenario leading to the defeat, destruction, triumph, etc. of the USA. but not the "collapse"

like everone else said, i hope i have not upset anyone. keep it civil.

[jgibson]

Like some of you have said, we have checks and balances, and although we are powerful, we will never be an empire. Our political system makes sure that no one man or one group can have too much power. For example, we have a 2 party political system. This ensures that our government is not one sided because they keep each other in check.

Also, the Judicial branch of our government can over ride what the Executive branch decides to do. The Judicial branch is kept in check by the Legislative branch, which can be over ruled by the Executive branch. That sounds kind of confusing, but it makes perfect sense when looked at in perspective.

It all boils down to power. Humans are power hungery creatures, and our founding fathers knew this. So, they created a government system that regulates and delegates power so that no one person can become an emperor.

[Wayne Venomous]

Personally, rather than look at the Roman Empire, I'd look at the British Empire and look at the history of how that came about - it ain't pretty. Us Brits did some nasty stuff (putting it mildly).

Whilst I'm not saying America would do what Britain did, it might be a good starting point for your project. If anything, it's a lot more recent compared to the Roman Empire.

[Sparkfist]

Well there are simalarities of the Roman Empire to United States of America there are far more differences.

The key thing that hurt the Roman Empire is that they stopped expansion. Without concoring other nations and getting the riches they had Roman was hurt. You can see a more recent event, the Spanish during the early day of the New World had a wealth of gold, but when that stopped Spain lost it's status as a world power.

Rome didn't exactly collapse as most think. People changes and areas fell from the Roman authority. Really it was slow process of maybe a century were the Western Kingdom fell. Something I don't see happening with America.

Rome's whole infastructure was build on concuring as I said. America isn't, we are based a capitalist economy that requires many other countries to support it now, but very different. Majority of our money is internally made.

To address the military part. Yes we do have the most advance military in the world, however it's more for defence then offence. And in the last wars we haven't taken everything of value from the country and then made the territory into a colony, like what Great Britian did about a century or two ago. If anything we go to war to make allies, look at German (long run), Japan, South Korea and I expect Iraq (once the government is stable).

I hope his helps your report Gamer2.

[gamer2]

See congress could easilly be done away with, like Ceasar did with his co-consul to make the Empire. If half of Congress is gone suddenly the system crumbles and we will be left in shambles, and someone will take power.