Thomas Mott Osborne: “I was privileged to hear British Prime Minister Tony Blair speak in this Chamber a few months ago, and one comment he…”

“I was privileged to hear British Prime Minister Tony Blair speak in this Chamber a few months ago, and one comment he made particularly caught my attention. He said, ``As Britain knows, all predominant power seems for a time invincible, but in fact, it is transitory.'' I think what he was saying is that essentially nothing lasts forever, including great nations. History teaches us that, most of the world's great powers are not overcome by external force, but rather disintegrate internally. And let us take a quick study of three such examples. Rome, of course, 2,000 odd years ago, stood astride the then- civilized world and appeared to be invincible. Yet it fell from preeminence, and the reasons historians have given us, there was a general decline in morality, increasing corruption and instability in leadership, an increasing public addiction to ever more violent public spectacles, an increase in crime and prostitution, and a populace that had become more self-absorbed, apathetic, and unwilling to sacrifice for the common good.”