Remember what I was saying about the US projecting hard power when its soft power starts to dwindle?

"Indeed, by some calculations, the United States spends more on defense than all other nations in the world together [emphasis mine]. This is a circumstance without historical precedent. .... On a day-to-day basis, what do these expensive forces exist to do? Simply put, for the Department of Defense and all of its constituent parts, defense per se figures as little more than an afterthought. The primary mission of America's far-flung military establishment is global power projection, a reality tacitly understood in all quarters of American society. .... The new American militarism also manifests itself through an increased propensity to use force, leading, in effect, to the normalization of war."

Link

Greetings, citizens of Rome. Sorry the cities are burning and everyone's crazy from the pollution, but we have the greatest military in the world! I find it sobering to realize the Dark Ages came after the fall of Rome. Fundamentalism and brutality, plagues and poverty, the wheel turns again.