When in Rome?

You guys have hopefully heard of the military hiring private companies to do security work in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere around the world. The media always calls these companies something similar to “private firms”, but you know what they really are, right? Anyone heard the term Mercenaries? You may have heard about Mercenaries in another time period. Think back to your history lessons on ancient Rome. I heard that one of the factors to the fall of Rome was a military force that was stretched too thin along the empire then compensated with a Mercenary force. Is anyone else worried about some similarities between the American Empire and the Roman Empire?