History does not whisper. It warns.

Empires do not collapse because of a single moment of weakness. They erode from within, slowly hollowed out by overreach, moral ambiguity and the false belief that their power exempts them from consequence. The question before us is not whether America is strong. It is whether we are wise enough to endure the burden that comes with being the world's lone superpower.

Scores of empires have come before us. Each one believed itself indispensable. Each one believed its reach was justified. And each one eventually fell, often not at the hands of foreign enemies but by the cumulative weight of unsustainable wars and internal contradictions.

World War I alone shattered the Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, Russian and Chinese empires, while accelerating the decline of the British and French. The so-called thousand-year German Reich lasted barely more than a decade. The Soviet Union dissolved in 1991 under the pressure of its own excesses. Even Rome, arguably the greatest empire in history, could not escape the trap of perpetual conflict.

Economist Joseph Schumpeter described Rome's fatal flaw with chilling clarity: Threats were constantly manufactured, interests endlessly expanded, and wars justified under the banner of necessity and honor. When no clear enemy existed, one would be invented. The result was a state perpetually at war, convinced it was always acting in self-defense.

We would be foolish to believe we are immune from that pattern.

The United States is still young by historical standards — just 250 years old. In its early years, our conflicts were limited and often defensive. The........

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