This can't end well...

Sleepwalking into the imperial dark
By Tom Engelhardt

This can't end well.

But then, how often do empires end well, really? They live vampire-like by feeding off others until, sooner or later, they begin to feed on themselves, to suck their own blood, to hollow themselves out. Sooner or later, they find themselves, as in our case, economically stressed and militarily extended in wars they can't afford to win or lose.

Read more:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MD22Ak01.html