Problem: Here's an interview by Stephen Colbert with Cullen Murphy, author of a critically acclaimed book Are We Rome?, published in 2007, when many found the comparisons between Rome's last years and America during the Bush-Cheney administration irresistible. A subsequent President's (apocryphal) story may make the comparison even more compelling, and threatening. Do you think that employing this Roman tactic would increase or lessen the confidence Murphy expressed that we might escape Rome's fate? Would use of such a tactic today be more likely to eliminate terrorism or create more terrorists? Is this another example of our common fascination with violence (gladiators in the Colosseum/NFL finalists in the Super Bowl)? Does it suggest that our fates may be even more closely linked? What kind of country do we want America to be?