TallyMan wrote:
Many Europeans are now looking at America and basically wondering what happened? America seems like a backwards and belligerent place now, being left behind, a former super power in decline.
We're basically retracing Russia's steps.
After being the hero of the world (Russia beat Napoleon, we beat Hitler) both countries went about trying to maintain a super-dominant position in the world and to be the bastion of civilization everywhere. Needless to say, this is rather taxing on the budget. So, budget problem, plus badly-chosen wars (Crimea for Russia, several for the US, currently Iraq) along with a belief in the superiority of your own nation and a separation from the rest of the Western world (Russia had the quandary of whether they were truly part of Europe, America is on another continent) and eventually you end up falling behind and collapsing under your own weight.
America in fifty years will still be a major power, but we will no longer be THE dominant power. It may be that there is no longer a super-power, or China may fill that role. I think the world would be better off with no nation ever being so completely dominant again. I sort of want a modern-day Metternich to come and establish a stable balance of power, except this time for it to actually work.
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WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH