Prodi's when he said "the great risk of great powers is overstretching." This is so true if you look at examples historically. Napoleon conquered much of Europe but he was constantly stretching for more. The Roman Empire also reached out further than they could control. These are just two examples of great countries that were so busy reaching out for more control that they failed to maintain control of that which they already possessed. The same thing could end up happening right here in the U.S.A. if we are not careful. We are quick to judge the rest of the world and think we are better than them because we are Americans. This however is not the case. We could learn a lot from the example of some of these other countries instead of being high and mighty and acting like we are all knowing and everybody else out there is wrong. As a country, we are constantly sticking our nose into everybody else's business and one of these days somebody is going to end up cutting it off. We assume that we are invincible and that there is no one out there who can seriously contest our power. Assumption, however, is the mother of all screw-ups. The truth is no one is invincible. We have so many problems of our own that we seem to want to pretend are not there and think that it is more important to focus on what we perceive as a problem in other countries. If we could take half the time we spend in trying to oversee everyone else's foreign policy and took that same time to better our own domestic policy the world would be a better place. I personally think that the European Union would be a great asset to us. If they get better organized it would save a lot of hassle should future conflicts occur abroad. Instead of having to deal with over 20 different small countries we"d be able to deal with one representative for them and they would be able to decide as a group what would serve them best instead of only individually.