Have things changed much since this book was published in 2005?
“Four sorrows are certain to be visited on the United States. Their cumulative effect guarantees that the U.S. will cease to resemble the country outlined in the Constitution of 1787.
“First, there will be a state of perpetual war, leading to more terrorism against Americans wherever they may be and a spreading reliance on nuclear weapons among smaller nations as they try to ward off the imperial juggernaut.
“Second is a loss of democracy and Constitutional rights as the presidency eclipses Congress and is itself transformed from a co-equal ‘executive branch’ of government into a military junta.
“Third is the replacement of truth by propaganda, disinformation, and the glorification of war, power, and the military legions.
“Lastly, there is bankruptcy, as the United States pours its economic resources into ever more grandiose military projects and shortchanges the education, health, and safety of its citizens.”
— Chalmers Johnson, “The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy and the End of the Republic” (2005). (Johnson, a former US Navy officer and CIA consultant from 1967 to 1973, died in 2010.)