The end of the beginning

The word "empire" has been on American – or at least media – lips for the
last year or so; and whether among its admirers on the right or those who
fear it on the left, it's a word that manages to have such a monumental
feel, such a lasting ring to it. American as the new Rome – and those
Romans, didn't they go on forever? America as the new Brits – and the sun
took, what, a century to settle on them? And those old Chinese imperial
dynasties – good lord, hundreds of years sometimes.

Unfortunately, I'm no historian of the Roman Empire, but some historian out
there should remind us of the venal and the stupid emperors of ancient Rome.
I say this because my own suspicion is that our imperial age – the age of
the younger Bush – will prove to be a brief imperial age of stupidity.
Where are the books about the stupid empires, the ones whose strategies
proved catastrophic even to them, the ones that fell smack on their imperial
faces?

http://www.nationinstitute.org/tomdispatch/index.mhtml?emx=x&pidT2