Regular reader MK sent this one along (thanks!) ... it's an editorial from the LA Times suggesting the US has become like 'late' Rome ... not sure the conclusion (below) connects to that which went before, though:

Welcome to late-era Rome, where mindless militaristic expansion is considered patriotic and where demagogues who recklessly waste taxes and young lives in empire-building are deemed valorous. Wolfowitz, for example, has been rewarded for his ignorance and arrogance with the top job at the World Bank.

It is not too late, however, for us to wake up and recall that, in the end, once militarism trumped republicanism, the glory that was Rome proved to be a hollow boast.