Did you know 1 % of the American Military budget could pay for every family in Africa to have mosquto nets. And you claim to be a beacon of hope?

I've never understood America's bloated sense of self rightessness.

And don't get me started on that strange saluting the flag and swear allegence you FORCE YOUR CHILDREN to do EVERY DAY. And the langauge you use in class, 'Reading makes a strong nation'. What is that crap its he kind of thing I would expect to have seen in a Nationalistic state not a state of 'liberty'.

But thats a bit off topic, America will not be the dominate power by the end of the first half of this century, its ecconomy based on Oil is going down the toleit. Any one who cannot see this is too Pat-ri-otic (to be pronounced as it is written no more of your butchery of OUR (British) language please)

Quote:They're not tired, not hungry, not missing relatives, and they haven't got the shit kicked out of them in any fashion, most of them were on our side when it came to removing the guy.

So if that is ture then was Sudam (sp?) defended by an army of robots?
Because that would explain why nobody was angry when a FOREIGN POWER decided to go and blow up their sons.

what you are saying is not true america is not the most advanced country
europe is most new tech stuff comes from europe [did you not know cd,dvd,blueray was invented by my country the netherlands] i gues Europe and US are equal on this, as is the military in the netherlands has the most [ok its small i know] advanced army,navy in the world. so your not the most advanced culture out there remember that next time before you quote something  

Lol my edit buttons gone and half the post went with it GRRRR...

Anyways, What I was going to add to that was the question should be not Will america always be a superpower but whether it deserves to be one? Note I am aware thats a bit of a kettle,pot moment. But the point still stands

O yeah and then I had a rant about how Bad and Socialially conroling Americas popular culture is, So I am glad that went missing(Can you tell I'm slighlty tippsy).

If we did not deserve it then the world would not bestow it upon us. Lets face the real fact here, even with our military might, if the rest of the world did not want us running the show the way we do then we would be stopped dead in our tracts.

If the rest of the world (not as an organized action mind you but just as a mind set established within each socity as an individual aditude) did not want us to "rule" then they would develop other means of getting things done without us.

That is most likly what will happen in the end. One day people will just no longer want us to be taking charge of things and setting the overall tone. No amount of military might would be able to prevent this from occuring and then The United States would simply cease being a super power. We are one only due to the fact that when we speak others listen, they might not always agree, they might always like. they might not always help but they do not take messures to stop us. When someone does and others deside to listen to them instead of us, we will no longer be in charge.

Are you being serious?

Your caliber of ignorance baffles me.

Our military DOES NOT kick ass, it stopped kicking ass as soon as other nations got nuclear weapons; with those, it really does not matter how many tanks you make in a month. You wonder who will win? Whoever pushes the button first.

Plan ahead you say? Well I would love to see your schedule, let's see on which days of the year you plan on getting the flu. Or perhaps cancer? Can you plan ahead for that?

Weed out the sick? God forbid you or a loved one of yours would contract a terrible terminal illness and you find yourself in a situation where, unless you come up with hundreds of thousands of dollars, you won't be treated. I'm sure in that situation you'll be taking all that you said. Heck, Perhaps you would even agree and say that the US should stop spending so much money on "the gun show" and more money on caring for its people because, after all, that is part of the government's job isn't it?

What is the point of spending all the money in being able to fully defend your borders when everyone inside is dying?

America and the rest of the world need to understand that "business as usual" is dead. Either humanity enlightens itself and unites as ONE; in true care for one another and the pursuit of things that matter (IE: Space exploration, scientific advancements) or humanity wipes itself out.

Did you know? We are approaching that cross-roads very fast.

Are you being serious?

Your caliber of ignorance baffles me.

Our military DOES NOT kick ass, it stopped kicking ass as soon as other nations got nuclear weapons; with those, it really does not matter how many tanks you make in a month. You wonder who will win? Whoever pushes the button first.

Plan ahead you say? Well I would love to see your schedule, let's see on which days of the year you plan on getting the flu. Or perhaps cancer? Can you plan ahead for that?

Weed out the sick? God forbid you or a loved one of yours would contract a terrible terminal illness and you find yourself in a situation where, unless you come up with hundreds of thousands of dollars, you won't be treated. I'm sure in that situation you'll be taking all that you said. Heck, Perhaps you would even agree and say that the US should stop spending so much money on "the gun show" and more money on caring for its people because, after all, that is part of the government's job isn't it?

What is the point of spending all the money in being able to fully defend your borders when everyone inside is dying?

America and the rest of the world need to understand that "business as usual" is dead. Either humanity enlightens itself and unites as ONE; in true care for one another and the pursuit of things that matter (IE: Space exploration, scientific advancements) or humanity wipes itself out.

Did you know? We are approaching that cross-roads very fast.

You apparently don't need us to butcher your language. You're doing a pretty good job all by yourself.

Seriously... you ought to look at the policies of your own government. You're in Iraq too, much as I wish your PM had the temerity to stand up to the shrub. You also live in one of the most surveiled societies on earth. What's up with that?

Don't get me wrong, I love Europe and Britain in particular. I've been there many times and have very good friends there. But, I find that many Europeans often make the mistake of assuming that Americans all think alike. We don't. There are plenty of us on this side of the pond who are just as sickened at all the flag-waving blind-obediance crap profferd to the town idiot.

Rest assured, we are going to fix this in the next election.

*sighs*

I think some people are sorely lacking in education on matters like these.

People do not 'give' the United States their power, the United States has power because of its military and economic strength. If everyone decided one day that they would prefer Uganda to be a superpower, it's simply not going to happen.

A post like this is a perfect example of the ethnocentrism that I spoke of earlier. This type of thinking is what I like to call 'deservist.' Now, not all Americans (or people from other wealthy nations) think this way, but a significant percentage does. It's the view that Americans (or whomever) are powerful because they deserve it and the rest of the world 'bestows' it upon them. This isn't the case, and this type of thinking is analogous to a child in a rich family that believes they deserve to get everything handed to them because they are somehow inherently superior to the poorer people around them.

The reason people think this way is that this type of thinking is inherently embedded in a capitalist system. We are taught that if you work hard, you will succeed and live 'the American Dream.' Unfortunately, this isn't how it really works (the vast majority of wealth in countries like the US an Canada is inhereted). Things like GDP and 'economic growth' rarely effect the majority of people, and with our hyper-materialistic economic system, we are all taught that we are defined by what we own.

Anyone who has done a little bit of travelling (and I don't mean to Americanized tourist destinations), and actually spoken to people of different origins and learned about separate cultures and histories will quickly realize that Western nations are not the centre of the universe. Remember that we are lucky to have been born in nations like Canada and the US. If you had been born in any periperhal nation, your idea of how things work in this world would be VASTLY different. Be thankful that we lead comfortable lives, and don't ever assume that we deserve it.

Lets be honest most americans are gonna die of obeseity.

There is story, out of Colorado I think, where a loud (but apparently not very wealthy) Republican businessman was able to get tort-reform passed. It limited the medical damages that anyone could recover from an individual or corporation to $250,000. He was lauded by the insurance industry as a visionary. That year, his wife was hit and crippled in an auto accident. He sued and recovered the maximum amount he could: $250,000. A quarter-mil sounds like a lot, but healthcare is amazingly expensive. He is now bankrupt and living in an apartment somewhere because all that money barely covered all the surgeries and therapy needed over the years. Poetic justice much?

Just goes to show how far people are willing to go to destroy their own lives in the name of a morally-bankrupt and unworkable ideology. People are happy to talk about "limits" and "caps" and letting the "lazy b****rds" go without treatment because "its not my problem." But when you're the one under the knife, it all changes.

I leave you with a letter that was written this last march in the rocky mountain news:

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/mar/10/tort-reform-must-not-neglect-injured-victims/?printer=1/

A salient quote:

"You see, this client, an advocate of tort reform, who supported and in fact testified for tort reforms similar to those which were the subject of your editorial, had an epiphany as that snow machine ran over his midsection - the same realization that anyone would have, likely including anyone on your editorial board. These limits all seem well and good when talking about other people, but God forbid anything ever happens to you. If and when it ever does, the caps for which you so strongly advocate transform themselves into a system which simply and seemingly arbitrarily restrict your rights.

And so, whether its the doctor who “accidentally” punctures your colon during a laparoscopic procedure and the resulting infection claims both ovaries so that you can never have kids, or the anesthesia mistake that takes the life of your young child during a dental procedure, or the car accident which robs you of your ability to walk or even breathe on your own, your readers and editorial board need to ask yourselves if you are troubled by the fact that legislators are contemplating raising 20 year old damage limitations related to personal injury claims. I suggest that there is no way to fairly balance the policy considerations of the proposed legislation without, even for one painful moment, putting yourself in the shoes of those future and unfortunate victims for whom these proposals are designed to aid."

Even in Red-state Colorado, we in America are waking up from a period of profound lack of empathy.

True patriots who understand the Constitutional meaning of the "commons" will keep America in the Superpower category a while longer.

You do realize, your entire bit about the nuclear weapons is all wrong yes? Afterall, EVERYONE has nukes, so if ANYONE uses them, then THEY get nuked right back, which basically keeps everything in check.

I beg to differ with you on this, The United States is powerful in world affairs only because others allow us to be and it is "bestowed" upon us.

The Soviet Union challenged that view and for about fifty years, there was a running competition as to who should call the shots. In the end, the people and nations of the world decided it was the United States, otherwise more people and nations would have placed their efforts and resources behind the soviets. They did not! They chose the USA. (Was it our military might that crushed them?)

As for the distribution of wealth or social justice or any other individual factor you want to bring up you will always be able to find a deficiency in what is being examined if your objective is to find a deficiency. We have our economic strength due to the fact that people chose to buy our products back when we used to actually make things. People if they so choose could and some do, buy elsewhere. When people decide that they no longer wish to continue to contribute to America’s power they will stop doing so. This is not an attitude of "entitlement" I am "entitled" to nothing! if you do not want me to have this power then stop giving it to me, I cannot take it from you, you can only give it to me and if one day everyone decides that Uganda is going to become the world’s super power then it will become the world’s super power because those who can yield power will begin to gravitate toward Uganda, people will chose to model what they want to have and do and be after the examples that Uganda brings forth. And if they don’t want, or like it then they will take it away from Uganda and give it to someone else. Any no military on earth can prevent those forces from happening.

As far as my view being different, would you be so kind as to tell me what part of the world I am from? What part of the world did I grow up in? What part of the world is my heritage from? What part of the world is my Culture?
I will let you know this much, over the last 200 years my family watched as the country if helped form was invaded and destroyed, our lands taken from us and some surviving family members became refuges in other countries, hunted by the government of the country that had invaded and conquered them. A truce was reached about 5 years later when said family members began to assist another county that was also facing invasion and conquest from that very same country build a coherent military force to overcome the invading forces! We never got our lands back (about 200,000 acres) we never got back any of our property nor were we compensated for it in any fashion. The only thing that we got was a “if you stop we will not hunt you down and kill you; you can return to the place of your birth and live.”

Now about 200 years before that we had an uprising in the country we were in (not the same one we helped form) and our lands were taken from us and many of our family members were burned at the stake. We fled as refugees to another land.

So where is my culture from? It started in Ireland and came to North America in 1685. That was part two above. As for part one It was not the United States! We were instrumental in the creation of The Confederate States of America. And the creation of that was to protect our nation of Virginia from Invasion from the United States! After the war, it was Mexico, Cuba and Canada that we fled to. The other country we assisted was the Indian Nation; Family members were instrumental in the bringing of the development of a comprehensive training program to train 50,000 Comanche Calvary to invade the western portion of The United States. So we are not what you would call “The greatest supporters of America” if you would like to check this out you can reference the main ancestor to whom I refer Jubal Anderson Early.

Now what does The United States being a “western” power have to do with being the center of the universe? What makes you think that because America is a super power that even those of us who are in the ruling class here think it is the center of the universe? Nice attempt at a label there but you missed your mark buy about 12,000 miles.

And I am just wondering how many different countries around the world and how many different people do I need to speak to to qualify for you’re oh so elitist view of knowing better then I currently do?

Do you know where I have been and with whom I have spoken? I will tell you this much back in 1980’sI dated the daughter of a mid level Chinese communist party leader and I was schooled with a person who was involved in fomenting revolution in his native Venezuela. A girl friend of mine from the late 70’s died in a French Prison for an anti American Activity she was involved in while traveling from her native Spain.

So do I now qualify for your ever so self righteous “I would know better” metal? Would you like to sigh again, I mean I guess I should be bowing down to your so superior education on such matters... so please “bestow” upon me your great wisdom so that I can understand the obvious error of my thinking. I mean after all, being an American I “deserve” to have your wisdom “bestowed” upon me cause after all I do live in the center of the universe.

I think the question is beyond silly. If you've any decent amount of common sense: you needn't even need a single reason to fully understand why it's silly to consider that as a real "possibility".

America if you beleive some people is no longer a superpower do to its interdependence with other nations. If we are such a superpower we would not be using other nations for jack. No nation can remain a super power just for example look at the british empire a prenuke superpower not a superpower in a big way these days. Out of curiosity did anyone bother to look up what defines a superpower.

All things end. America however is still young compared to other nations culturally. I believa that it is not anytime in the lifetime of anyone currently living that amerca will lose its status. Sever4al reason are space and extraterrestial coloization. While many nations are helping ,the EU is not a nation any more than the US canada and mexico if we all had the same dollar, America is likly to be one of the most important players because it has already been there. Damn our congress for cutting spending. After colonization and the selfsustainablity the colonies will gain is reached and they take control of all off Earth travel things might change, but until an Martian battleship is in orbit not much will change to drasticly expect maybe the second coming of christ before then

Some very good points made on this thread. Nothing lasts forever. America is decreasing for several reasons.
Illegal immigration is draining our financial resources.
Islamofascism is a serious threat. 9/11 was a sample. Wait until Iran or a similar country gets a nuclear bomb. It can be brought to the US in a suitcase. With open borders that would be easy. They want to transform the world into sharia law and are well on the way.
The decline of the dollar. Very serious.
Dependence on arab oil and all the problems that go with it. Gas now almost $4 a gallon. This affects the price of almost everything we buy. Including food which is starting to go way up.
We no longer produce smart kids. The education system caused by liberal educators has made a mess of the schools. Tech companies recruit engineers from abroad or there wouldn't be enough qualified to work in American companies.
Wussie politicians on both sides of the aisle continue to make things worse. America's downward spiral is accelerating because of self-serving stupid people in congress and the presidency.
That's just the way it is.