"Now that the USA has collapsed due to excessive military spending...

[Junkdrawer]

and corrupt party leaders, can the world keep its top generals from selling its nuclear weapons on the black market?"

--- Headline in the Toronto Star July, 2011...

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Do you think it will take that long?

[Junkdrawer]

2. Just a guess...Couple hundred billion $ here, couple hundred billion $...

there, pretty soon it adds up to real money.. :evilgrin:

[Odin2005]

3. It won't be that fast.

The Roman Empire took centuries to die after it's hight in the 2nd century, the western part didn't collapse until Germanic barbarians started to pour across the Rhine River in 406 AD, the eastern rump of the empire survived until 1453 when Constantinople was sacked by the Turks. Nations don't collapse overnight, they slowly moulder away untill all that's left is an empty husk.

[Junkdrawer]

5. The USSR was the Evil Empire in the mid '80s...And gone by '91...

You can support a massive military with no manufacturing base for only so long...

[cliss]

6. Good point. But -

maybe Empires have a faster turnaround these days? This is actually something I've been thinking about.

I truly believe the US is finished as an Empire. I hate to think that this country has to go bankrupt before our leaders change their ways. But it may come to that. Regardless of what happens, I believe this country will emerge from the ashes and become much better than we were before. A truly magnanimous country without our blood-sucking "leaders".

But I'm wondering about Empires. There was the Roman Empire which lasted 1,000 years (?), the Portugese had an amazing empire which lasted I think 600 years (the longest?) Then we had Spain, Sweden for a while, the Dutch, even France. Germany had a mini-empire in the 1400's. Then of course we have the English Empire.

All of them collapsed. Including Russia in 1992. The U.S. will follow in their footsteps. But our Claim to Fame will only be between 1945 through 2007 (maybe). That's only 62 years. Are they getting steadily shorter?

[KT2000]

4. Still believe that history

will show that the Cold War was the costliest of all.
The assets of two powerful nations were sunk into defense/offense spending instead of healthy growth of their citizens.

The health damage that was started during the Cold War will continue to decimate the populations for decades to come. Nuclear, chemical and biological testing of weapons have spread cancer, immune diseases and birth defects. Their poisons are part of our atmosphere and will continue to circle the earth to poison future generation.

The US and what was once the USSR are still hunkered down in the Dark Ages having spent the future of their citizens on weapons systems. Having gone belly up - they cannot even stop. I believe bush not only deals in the black market - he believes in creating new markets.