Russia is a land-based 19th century colonial empire with a 20th century army fighting a 21st century war of genocidal conquest. Though both Russia and America were built on genocidal conquest of indigenous peoples, whataboutism is worse than useless for understanding what's at stake now.
The second least viable of the three empires remaining in our age of empire demolition, begun in 1848, continued in 1918, post-1945 and in 1989-91, is China. Its Uighur "reeducation" camps, Han Chinese settlement policies on its periphery and Hong Kong repression that broke the "one country, two systems" treaty of 1997, threats against a defacto independent and sovereign Taiwan mark China as an empire incapable of learning that indirect is far superior to direct rule.
The US is the world's first planetary empire and the most viable due to its network of voluntary alliances, indirect rule and influence, matchless soft power from movies, music, social media, talent-importing academic and science infrastructure, the English language (the Chinese language is tonal, has no alphabet and is utterly unexportable), reserve currency, energy independence and low energy costs for its rapidly reshoring industries (Intel, TSM and Micron chip fabs), two ocean and friendly neighbor security buffer, continental size and population, rule of law, deep and liquid financial markets, technological superiority in its military-industrial complex, talent-importing immigration friendly culture (40% of Silicon Valley startups have immigrant founders), Trumpism notwithstanding.
Look at the empire features grid herein:
This is just a short list of American advantages without even getting into China's and Russia's nightmarish demographics, climate change vulnerabilities and seething, resentful minority nationalities on their peripheries.
No other empire can defeat the US. As Lincoln said:
America can die only by its own hand:
"If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."
