Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
If history has taught us anything, it would be that no empire lasts forever. The United States, will likely not stay on top forever, but how much longer do we have?
So, what's your best guess on who will usurp the position, be it one country or a multitude of countries?
How will this go down? When will this happen?
It is not a matter of "usurp," as in international politics and power there is no rightful leader to be usurped, but rather a leader that arises and declines based on complex circumstances.
In the post-WW II period the U.S. attempted to establish a global hegemony, and spent incredible amounts of its national wealth in aggressive contention with the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union, having considerably less to work with, wasted itself first in this struggle which led to its demise. However, despite its vast expenditures the U.S. in the second half of the 20th century won only three clear-cut military victories, those being over the tiny nation of Grenada, the militarily insignificant Panama, and over the Iraqi invaders in Kuwait. The remaining military involvements ended as stalemates or withdrawals/concessions. The two wars of the 21st century have both been failures, and demonstrate how the obsession with military solutions which developed in the previous half century thoroughly misled the United States. The invasion of Iraq destabilized the Mideast by removing a check on Shiite militarism, by making the present Sunni-Shia warfare possible (thus spreading destabilization beyond the Mideast) and by turning Iraq into an Al Qaeda stronghold and conduit. This war has been the worst miscalculation by the United States in its history. The Afghanistan War is a prolonged humiliation and defeat, but its consequences will be far worse than the similar event in Vietnam because they will conflate with the multiple disasters the U.S. precipitated by invading Iraq.
The U.S. lost its mind to militarism, then it lost its military judgement. In retrospect much of the money spent on this policy was wasted, and could have been put to better use elsewhere.
American society has a taste for self-indulgence and luxury at any cost, and being unable to satisfy its rapacious adolescent appetite through domestic production, it imports like it was afraid that importing might go out of style. The nation has become like a prostitute who has developed the tastes of an empress, but doesn't have enough customers paying for what she puts out to finance her lifestyle. And since the lady can't sell enough, she borrows...and pretends that a world of good time Charlies is really going to stay interested in supporting her rotting carcass as long as she likes. At this point America's weak currency may be her strongest asset...not a pretty prospect there, but both major political parties are happy with that.
The social and cultural instability and the economic rot set in thirty years ago, and combined with the ongoing military obsession and the demented jingoism which accompanies it, the combination was fatal to America's longevity in the role of the principal world power. The pervasive weakened condition of the country has been unrelentingly on display throughout the terms of the last two presidents.
And the other nations of the world - contrary to what we Americans often seem to think - do not sit around like a dutiful audience waiting for the legendary "Fat Lady" to sing. We are quite simply not the only show in town, and haven't been for some time.
The question isn't "How will this go down?" The event is present tense.
*U.S. HAS WARNED RUSSIA, IRAN AGAINST POSSIBLE OIL BARTER DEAL
*U.S. SAYS ANY SUCH DEAL WOULD TRIGGER SANCTIONS
*U.S. HAS CONVEYED CONCERNS TO IRANIAN GOVT THROUGH ALL CHANNELS
We suspect these sanctions would have more teeth than some travel bans, but, as we noted previously, it is just as likely to be another epic geopolitical debacle resulting from what was originally intended to be a demonstration of strength and instead is rapidly turning out into a terminal confirmation of weakness.
As we explained earlier in the week,
Russia seems perfectly happy to telegraph that it is just as willing to use barter (and "heaven forbid" gold) and shortly other "regional" currencies, as it is to use the US Dollar, hardly the intended outcome of the western blocakde, which appears to have just backfired and further impacted the untouchable status of the Petrodollar.
"If Washington can't stop this deal, it could serve as a signal to other countries that the United States won't risk major diplomatic disputes at the expense of the sanctions regime,"
The thing is China has the manufacturing industrial capacity to ramp up military production if they so choose to. Before the U.S. entered WWII the U.S. in numerical terms was very lacking in military hardware compared to Germany and Japan. During WWII the Americans and the Russians had less advanced military equipment compared to Germany (Tanks, Jets, V2 Rocket ,88mm artillery piece, MG 38 machine gun,world's first assault rifle) but history proved overwhelming quantity trumps quality.
This isn't WW2 anymore. Today, quality does trump quantity.
Russia can basically do whatever it wants. And no, I don't want a war to break out.
People here argue "America has the biggest military, the most nukes, hurr durr!". Russia doesn't seem to be impressed by that. Neither would be China. Even North Korea plays old Harry with the US on a regular basis. That leads me into believing that the US isn't the sole superpower.
Well I don't see the EU doing anything in the Ukraine. Russia is a nuclear power so unless you have any plans on how to go forward with this you can be quiet. North Korea is so irrelevant its not even funny. They can barely feed their own people and their leaders are worshipped as gods. Even if North Korea did do something they would be flat out crushed by our other allies in the region(China, Japan, South Korea etc.)
funded how? Giving cold war helmets and plywood to make homemade shields? Maybe send a 100 baseball bats? Don't kid yourself. The uprising was a popular movement and their equipment was raggedy-ass ad-hoc ones.
Yup, those pieces of bread certainly came from the us:
Well I don't see the EU doing anything in the Ukraine. Russia is a nuclear power so unless you have any plans on how to go forward with this you can be quiet. North Korea is so irrelevant its not even funny. They can barely feed their own people and their leaders are worshipped as gods. Even if North Korea did do something they would be flat out crushed by our other allies in the region(China, Japan, South Korea etc.)
You don't seem to know that Europe has nuclear capacity?
Well I don't see the EU doing anything in the Ukraine. Russia is a nuclear power so unless you have any plans on how to go forward with this you can be quiet. North Korea is so irrelevant its not even funny. They can barely feed their own people and their leaders are worshipped as gods. Even if North Korea did do something they would be flat out crushed by our other allies in the region(China, Japan, South Korea etc.)
I don't see America doing anything either.
Britain and France have lots of nuclear weapons, and the best and most advanced kind (intercontinental ballistic nuclear missiles). It's more than enough to defend the eu
“The US is certainly one of the world’s leaders. At some point it seemed that it was the only leader and a uni-polar system was in place. Today it appears that is not the case. Everything in the world is interdependent and once you try to punish someone, in the end you will cut off your nose to spite your face."
“The US is certainly one of the world’s leaders. At some point it seemed that it was the only leader and a uni-polar system was in place. Today it appears that is not the case. Everything in the world is interdependent and once you try to punish someone, in the end you will cut off your nose to spite your face."
Putin stated the above recently. I would agree.
Planet Earth is a huge powerful place and there is no way possible there is one "world leader"
We have a very powerful military and very popular culture.
Russia and Canada are the largest countries with huge abundance of natural resources.
China has the highest population and the largest bank in the world.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
