# America in decline...how would we know?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/america-in-decline-how-would-we-know/411321>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [July 11, 2007, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/america-in-decline-how-would-we-know/411321 "2007-07-11T03:21:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/america-in-decline-how-would-we-know/411321/61 "2007-07-16T00:18:31Z")

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[QUOTE=astorian]  
That makes creating a real Euro fighting force… problematic, to say the least.  
[/QUOTE]  
And is that a problem, or a boon ? Simply put, is the huge, expensive American military a benefit to America, or white elephant ?

Any nuclear power doesn’t need to worry much about invasion, so unless you intend conquest a huge military just doesn’t have much to **do**. Sure you want some military; you want an option between “give up” and “fry the countryside”, but a huge American style military in the modern world is IMHO less likely to elevate Europe to America’s level of world power than it is to keep it from ever attaining such power. A huge military isn’t a form of power unless you have a use for it. After all, how much good is our military doing us now ?

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