You said:
Running all around the world looking for Monsters to Destroy is why the USA has overstretched itself, and is in such decline.
You are showing a steel production chart (which I have no disagreement with). How does this relate to the US running all over the world and overstretching itself? Please try to stay focused and not change topics to avoid thoughtful answers.
To my point, that there are many other reasons for our problems, we do have a spending problem. Its just not the military that is the problem:
Try getting rid of the welfare state, redistribution, making things like health care a right when they are not, and midnight basketball.
It has to do with military capacity, which is backed up by the capacity of the Industrial Base to produce what is needed on an ongoing basis for a lengthy war.
NATO as a whole (including USA) is being massively outproduced in munitions and military equipment by Russia alone.
And the production gap is actually larger than it was in 2022.
And Russia is dwarfed by China.
THAT’S the overstretch. USA no longer has the industrial capacity to even deal with Russia, let alone China.
Pulling the plug on Asia and telling Taiwan they are on their own is just a matter of time, and is rooted in industrial and military reality.
It’s inevitable, and the West has to stop writing cheques its ass can’t afford to have cashed.