Do Great Powers Commit Suicide?

I've been re reading this speech that charles croudhammer gave in two thousand nine. And he said basically, decline doesn't just happen. It's not the weather, you know. And we should resist decline. The key take away from me is that gentle decline is actually not necessarily on offer. That you you might find yourself experiencing something much more like a vertical fall. You can so weaken your own inner resolve and an inner vitality that you do lose when you come into contact with a with a tougher antagonist. That has to be the fear. I think it's called why the end of america's empire won't be peaceful.