Today, while having an intriguing conversation about Mexico’s ancient Aztec empire, I was asked if I thought it was possible for America to lose it’s place as the most powerful world force. “Of course not!” I quickly replied, but my friend was persistent. He argued that every other great power in the world’s history (Greece, Egypt, Rome, England) all had a downfall, so what makes us different?

Well, let me tell you. I do not believe it is possible for America to be defeated (at least as a world power).We are too organized, and we have too much land, power and weapons to be overthrown. An old Aztec ruler thought that all empires lived in a cycle: they would rise to power and world dominance and then have a great downfall. That may have been true then, but I do not think it is any longer (at least where America is concerned.)

My friend told me I had the views of a naïve and cocky American, but I do not think that is it. You see now we have things like nuclear weapons, advanced military, and the power to take things away from those who threaten us in an effort to convince them to ease up. We also have super intelligence firms which are constantly finding and stopping threats to our safety.

My friend believes that it would be the advice of the Aztecs to not make too many enemies, for it only makes the force against you larger and more powerful. He said that this is what we are doing in Iraq: making enemies.

Of course we are making enemies! That’s what happens when you go to war, but that doesn’t mean we should let them attack us just so we don’t make too many people angry.

And yes, it’s true that more people in the world hate American than love it, and there are a lot of countries which would love to overthrow us, or attack us with nuclear weapons-but we won’t let that happen.

Take North Korea for an example. They threatened us for years with nuclear warfare and finally we had to make a decision as to how to handle the situation. In the end we decided to freeze up there money and hold their economy in our hands. This was the motivation they needed to give up their nuclear program and begin working with us, and South Korea toward a peaceful and cohabitated relationship with the rest of the world.

Now let us look at Iran. They have been threatening us in ways similar to North Korea for sometime now, and furthermore have been aiding out enemy in Iraq to kill our brave men and women over there fighting for our freedom. We needed to do something. The Democrats screamed that invading Iran was not the answer, and I agree, for now. I think we all do.

But that still leaves the question of what to do. Looking at it from a military and safety point of view I knew we had to keep all options on the table. However, looking at it from a political point of view (for the Republicans) I knew that war with Iran would deeply alienate the publics trust in the party and almost (unless a miracle win occurred) kill our chances for 2008.

I said that we could do with Iran what we did with North Korea and if that didn’t work we would have to consider every possible route-my favorite choice if it had to be military was to fly over and destroy their nuclear facilities. Luckily we are now working to threaten them economically, and hopefully that will work.

Sorry to go into such detail but I feel it’s necessary to illustrate the power we have as a nation. When we see a threat, we take care of it, that’s why I feel there is little or no chance of anyone being able to overthrow America-at least in the next few centuries.