USA=Russia

[WatertheTree]

The way I see it is the USA is alot like Russia used to be. They decided to go on a decade long boy scouts adventure in afganistan, and then it bankrupted them. The debt is what caused the collapse of the empire.

Were wrapping up our decade in afganistan, and we broke. We have amassed a huge amount of debt from the war.

How much longer till we collapse?

 

[francoHFW]

Totally different- We're not trying to conquer Afghanistan, our economy is much stronger.

 

[Old Rocks]

Afghanistan is not the major expense. That was Iraq.

The really dumb part is that what we should have done, gone in and killed Bin Laden immediatly, then left, would have been cheap, and pretty easy.

Instead, we went in with the idea of doing some empire building, a la Cheney and the New American Century. And it has nearly bankrupted us. Combine that with the idiotic repeal and non-enforcement of SEC rules during the Bush admin, and you can see why we are where we are at the present.

 

[editec]

There ARE similarities between us and the former Soviet, of course.

But there are major differences that I think means that our fate will not be the same as the Soviet Union's.

For one thing, the nations of the former Soviet Union really were nations and unique cultures LOOOOONG before the communists took over the Romanov Empire.

So when the Soviets broke up, there was a kind of social structure already in place in much of that empire.

The USA does not have that kind of history to depend on if our national goverment goes down.

Also, the Societ Ruble was NOT the international currency as our is today. In fact it didn't trade against other currencies at all!

NOBODY was investing in SOVIET BONDS when that empire was on the skids.

But wealthy folks the world over still think that the safest place to park their excess capital is STILL US Treasury bills.

THAT is a gigantic diffence between today's USA, and yesterday's Soviet Socialist Republics.

Throw into that mix the fact that there is no other SUPER POWER competing with us, as the Soviet was dealing with while it was going down the chute.