The US starts more wars until its eventual complete collapse. See The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. We're operating out of a playbook for imperial destruction word for word.
What are some better parallels? Seriously, no snark, please throw out some suggestions for reading. I can't think of any other country that has done this to itself.
Qing suffered a century of unequal treaties before they fell, they were the bullied and not the bully. (They were also medieval and isolationist which further hurts the comparison IMO).
