Al Quaeda threat diminished - or not?

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Can you really blame it? When the entire world continually dumps all over you, you tend to not want to engage with it any more.

I don't blame them at all. Some say it is a historic pattern that their isolationism goes off - on- off - on again. I am not sure on that, just refer to what seems to be the present. The innerpolitical changes due to the changing American culture and society, imo are as important, if not more, than an assumed historic on-off-pattern. America today compares pretty much to Rome in its final stage, I think. The process back then lasted for centuries, and it still could last for decades in fast-living today's time. Military challenges form the outside were just one factor amongst severla ones, that sealed the fate of Rome. Same for America today. The real erosion takes place within. Some say that American values and culture and way of life are so popular globally that America cannot completely fall. Well, we owe to Roman culture and laws until today, and ironically especially us modern Germans are more Roman than Germanic products of culture. But that cultural heritage did not prevent Rome from simply fading. "Fading" maybe is the best way to describe what happened, and happens again.