Britain or Rome? In 2012 Americans Must Choose

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT:  The people of the United States of America are now at the final crossroads in our nation's history. We have a choice. The year 2012 will be the year America chooses her fate. For 2012 marks the year of the END of the American Empire. Due to increasing national deficits and a colossal national debt, staggering trade deficits, the lack of industrial infrastructure, economic stagnation coupled with inflation (stagflation) and a general inability (or unwillingness) to secure our own national borders, our superpower status will end this coming year. We may not see the final results of that for some time, but the decision of HOW our superpower ends will be made this coming year. It comes down to this. The American Empire is going to end -- period. Nothing can stop that now. The choice is this. Shall our empire decline like the British Empire or the Roman Empire?

That's it! That's the choice that faces us. It really is no more or less than that. We can either go the way of Britain or Rome.

When the British Empire became unsustainable, the Brits got smart. It took them a little while, but they did eventually figure it out.  They permitted their colonies to become independent nations (rather than risk a repeat of 1776). They downsized and focused on rebuilding their internal economic infrastructure. They scaled back their military to a more reasonable size that was commensurate with national defense alone. In the process they saved billions of pounds, and gave their nation new life. Today they are no longer an empire, but many of their former colonies have erected constitutional monarchies that still (voluntarily) name the Queen of England as their sovereign -- Canada, Australia, and New Zealand just to name a few.  Today you can go to Britain and still see British society. Their government remains intact. Their queen still reigns from the throne. It's all still there! And in spite of their many national problems, there is no indication that it is going extinct any time soon. We here in the United States can choose this path. We can accept that our international superpower (empire) status is unsustainable. We can scale back, downsize, and save trillions of dollars! We can refocus our efforts toward rebuilding our economic and political integrity, reforming and downsizing the welfare state as well.  We can turn back to our national Constitution, and start following it for a change!

Or we can refuse to accept the unsustainable nature of our empire (superpower status), and ignore all the signs around us. We can move forward internationally into wars and conflicts, increasing our debts, just as the Roman Empire did, and in doing so, we can follow in their footsteps into oblivion.  You see, the Romans refused to accept that their empire was unsustainable and in decline. They chose to hang on to it until the bitter end, exhausting their resources and over stretching their military. We can follow their example right into a fall so great that it results in ripping apart our nation into smaller nation-states, in a European kind of fracture. Yes, there was once upon a time, some 1,500 years ago, when all of Europe was united under one government and one language. Today you can go to Rome and see what's left of that government, in the ruins of the Forum and Colosseum. Today Europe is still divided up into different governments, languages and cultures. Every attempt to reunify Europe in the past has failed, and it looks as if this most recent attempt to economically reunify Europe (The European Union) will fail too.

So there you have it. Americans can either choose a smart decline like Britain, or a stupid suicidal decline like Rome. One way or another, we will decline, and this coming year (2012) marks the year we make our choice.  So America, what's it going to be?