"Profligate spending and unnecessary military adventures killed the Roman Empire, as it did several following European powers; now the United States is on the same downward path. "

There is a gentleman who predicts that the US will implode by 2030 - 2050. The economists say he doesn't understand Economics. He agrees, and he neither wants to, nor cares - he is a historian! :-)

When the interest payments on the nation's debt due to financing deficits with loans exceeds the money spent on defence, the country always implodes. This is the real reason that the US has to get out of Iraq! He has figures from several empires back to the 1500s starting with the Hapsburgs in Spain. The real reason that Russia pulled out of Afghanistan was not that "democracy beat communism", but that the lines crossed (Don't cross the Streams! Why? That would be bad!) sorry...