Come on now. You're using examples of countries that went to all out warfare against the rest of the world prior to their implosion such as Germany and Japan. That's hardly and example of natural societal evolution.

But it is an indicator or what's in store as far as the hatred generated by imperialists. I never once said that it's wrong for countries to sometimes paint a line in the sand and stand up to world bullies. I simply stated an absolutely logical conclusion that, the farther out one pushes their borders, the tougher it becomes to sustain control of those edges and the rot begins at the core. It's completely inevitable.

One of Germany's intended conquests was Russia. No matter how strong their military they could never have controlled such a vast and nationalistic area. It wouldn't have mattered in the long run how the rest of their world conquest went or if the Americans entered the war or any of the other factors. There becomes a point in conquest when one simply oversteps their abilities and their Russian intentions would've undone their empire.

Yes, our entry helped hasten that demise but I firmly believe Hitler wouldn't have lasted a decade had everyone simply stood up to him as he attacked them directly. Let's not forget that just a quirk of physical placement allowed him to survive a surefire assassination attempt which would've altered the dynamic drastically.

Look no further than our own little national debate over what many perceive as imperialistic tendencies by the current administration and the huge strain it's putting on our national strength and character. It's boneheaded to believe that those same factors aren't going on in every marauding nation and to much a greater factor when the conquest is much more obvious.

The more area you acquire, the more soldiers you have to come up with to sustain them and that drains talent from your heartland. There are casualties in all those conflicts no matter how efficient and ruthless your forces are and the effects on families back home begin to pile up. It's a pipe dream to believe you can simply raise new armies in the occupied lands out of the native populations because there's a matter of trust of the talent pool when you've destroyed their family members and blown up their homes and infrastructure.

Supply and communications lines become a huge mess and financial burden. It's one thing to move your military into a neighboring country but, as the distances grow from your heartland, those lines of support become increasingly vulnerable to attack and the cost of sustaining the necessary troops goes up exponentially. Do you have any clue what the cost to our country would be right now to completely withdraw from Iraq and bring all the equipment home and how long it would take? I read an article the other day explaining just that and it floored me.

So the short answer to you question is that the world has never really allowed countries to implode. Economic and power interests have always caused other entities to step in before that evolution could occur. Hell, the French took sides in our own Civil War.

I have no doubt that the domino theory reaches a point where the dominoes stand back up and start leaning the other way.

Art