If the US wasn't pumping a Trillion and a half dollars a year into the military, and instead pumped it into education (Science Tech Engineering Math), and into the US infrastructure, and into small & medium businesses, and rein in the Cost Plus model of transfer payments to mega-corporations - then the US could be leading the world in Energy and many other technologies. Instead? It builds its military in order to steal resources and to attempt to destroy the technology and infrastructure of other countries. Tacitus (Agricola 30): "Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant." Common English: "They make a desert and call it peace." -Attributed to Calgacus, Caledonian chieftain, criticizing Roman conquest The fall of the Roman Empire shouldn't be a template for the USA's present day wars of aggression.