Except we really aren't anymore. It is time we get our heads around that.
To wit:
Our dollar is worth but a fraction of what it once did, and it is heading south..
Superpowers loan money, not borrow it.
Superpowers have natural resources, and they use them to manufacture things. Those goods are then sold across the globe, making the superpower, well, a super power. We don't do that anymore.
Superpowers have strong leaders who are admired and respected around the world. We don't have that going on.
Superpowers make themselves critical to the economies and security of other nations. They all could survive just fine without us.
Superpowers hold education as one of the most priceless and valuable features of their culture. The US? Not so much. Most high school grads are no where near as smart as a 5th grader in India.
Superpowers have innovation and celebrate excellence in science and technology. What have we done lately? We have the iPad. And Google. And freaking Twitter.
Need I go on? We have the most amazing soldiers and sailors on the planet, but we no longer have the full force of a superpower government to back them up. Watch how fast we bail on Afghanistan.
The United States invented the concept of superpower. Now we can only hope for a seat at the table.
We were great once and we can be again. But start letting that idea sink in: sadly there is nothing super about America's power anymore.
15 years ago I was seeing a single mother in the base hospital ER. She was an E-3 with a chart 4 inches thick. We looked at it carefully and discovered that this girl had been on sick call and quarters more often than formation.
At the time the gun grabbers were thinking they would make some strides against us and I remember telling my partner, “Actually, this is a good thing. We may have to fight this army ourselves someday. (pointing at her) This is the army I want to fight...”
Yeah, the day may come when we are pretty happy the army is mostly homos and single mothers.
America is a super power.
America is the richest nation on Earth.
“Most high school grads are no where near as smart as a 5th grader in India.”
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Agreed and many if not most who have recently received a bachelor’s degree would not be able to pass the ENTRANCE exam for an American public high school of sixty years past.
>>”Superpowers have natural resources, and they use them to manufacture things. Those goods are then sold across the globe, making the superpower, well, a super power. We don’t do that anymore.”<<
Data on the Largest Manufacturing Countries in 2008
http://investing.curiouscatblog.net/2009/10/13/data-on-the-largest-manufacturing-countries-in-2008/
The world belongs to countries who murder dissenters, outlaw private property (including ones own autonomy), force pregnant women into death mills, and put their families in concentration camps.
The USA will be forced to join the “furnace race” pretty soon...if we haven’t already started.