By DEsaid: “Islamic fundamentalist extremism is alive and kicking … <snip> this extremism will continue to wear down American resources and American will as well. Current American policies seem unlikely to quickly help accomplish that goal and may be having somewhat of the opposite effect.” (Underlining mine)
I find this to be a curious observation. What is it about the recent events in Afganistan and Iraq that leads you to believe that American resources and American will are being worn down? I would think the opposite is indicated.
The Iraqi involvement in particular is costing the US … well oodles of dollars. The deficit is up and will eventually come back to haunt us. Even if short term economic cycles look promising. The military is stretched maintaining this magnitude of presence; reservists are functioning as full time military units with no end points clearly marked. There is not a lot in reserve for another conflict elsewhere. Americans are picked off in a steady trickle every week. A dozen more dead. Another helicopter downed. In the other direction mistakes are made as well: Iraqi police and innocent bystanders are killed by US troops. Suicide among US soldiers is high, abuse of their spouses when they return is up. And we haven’t even had to deal with any more completed acts of terror at home … so far. Although a country whose strength has always originated from its diversity has managed to implement what many consider an anti-immigrant agenda in the name of homeland security. I’d say this is all evidence of the wearing down of resources and will. Not that the US won’t follow through, and not to debate in this thread whether we should be there or not, or if the price is justified. But it is a hard slog that is unlikely to get much easier anytime soon. What do you marshall in support of the opposite POV?
Well, two are Amazon book reviews, and a third is an editorial in Asia Times by a someone writing under the pseudonym “Spengler,” rather than anything to do with Oswald Spengler (1880-1936), so I can’t “prove them wrong.” But they prove nothing in and of themselves, which was my point. I admit the international style of architecture, Oswald Spengler, and Amazon.com all are real, however. Happy? Super.
I wouldn’t have been so snotty about the OP if he had taken the “let’s discuss the ideas of Ziauddin Sardar” approach. But instead he made a series of ill-supported proclamations about our Eternal Empire. I guess this is the forum for witnessing, but I don’t have to agree with every untenable notion that comes down the pike.
I do plead guilty to hyperbole regarding blackouts. California’s rolling blackouts shaved around 1/2% off the state’s GDP according to Forbes. So it would take one hell of a blackout to utterly skewer the U.S. economy. Very, very unlikely. About as unlikely as any government enduring “for all time.”
You miss my point. I was not asking you to discredit the sources as individuals. I was asking you to debunk the information. If it’s grossly incorrect, you should have no trouble doing so very quickly. I’m quite interested in seeing what you come up with.
Hell, even a whacko like David Icke can have correct information on occasion. If someone like him stated “The sky is blue” should we dismiss it out of hand because we know him to be a loon?
All I’m saying is that you should expend your energy in refuting the assertion, not attacking the source of them.
Lissa, you’re not really earning my attention. It is incumbent upon Brandus to prove his very silly point that the U.S. will follow a path completely different from that of all other civilizations and NOT lose power over time. I cannot prove America is “on the verge of certain collapse,” but neither can Brandus show that the U.S. will endure forever. Indeed, he has shown us very little. But I’ll humor you, because I am such a wonderful person.
As to the influence of American culture, well, what of it? France remained a center of fashion, literature, and learning for at least a century after her imperial peak in the early 1800s. Folks were still speaking Latin in school at the beginning of this century, but I don’t think that means the Roman empire lasted “for all time.”
Nitpick time! The International Style of architecture is just that: an international style of architecture that grew out of the German Bauhaus school and the invention of reinforced concrete. And the Asia Times editorial about The Lord of Rings… not helpful.
By DSeid: “<snip>What do you marshall in support of the opposite POV?”
I’d say that US actions in Afganistan and Iraq demonstrate American will and resources are alive and well.
While the deficit is troubling, it seems not nearly as bad as it did about 12 years ago. As we learned during the early Clinton years, an economic upturn can wipe out a huge deficit in short order. It appears that such an upturn is well underway.
The daily loss of life in Iraq is tragic, but in a macro sense, loss of life in the Iraq war has been very small, as wars go.
I think that we will have success in drying up the financial resources of the terrorist organizations, thus starving them to death. (Removes rose-colored glasses to read “preview”)
The only reason I volunteered to put links in my post was to show that I didnt make up facts out of the top of my head, and that I was not quoting without giving credit. Is your entire grievance the quality of my links?
1] Do not link to 30 page pdf’s. Find a shorter page with similar content or sum it up.
2] The trade defecit link is only the total for petroleum and automotive defecits, do not appear to be scaled for inflation, and misses the point that the United States main export is the Dollar.
3] Warnings to the US from the IMF? That’s ironic; The IMF is controlled by the US. All IMF loans are denoted in dollars. And for the severity of a federal defecits, I’ll quote Cheney, “Reagan proved that defecits don’t matter”. (Paul O’Neill’s new book the Price of Loyalty)
4] I know what the international style is. The point was that local cultures are being eroded by bland, monotone architechture whose main proponent is the US. Read “Disappearing through the Skylight” for further reference.
Lastly, don’t compare the US to France, it was only ever a regional power, not the singular global power, which is why historical comparisons lose their meaning when applied to America and one of my points in this thread.
What many posters are forgetting is not making the point of IS AMERICA big and strong… they are. Even the British Empire in decadence had power. The issue is this power waning… or is America built to last longer? (not forever… because that is a silly idea).
So Iraq and Afghanistan adventures do cost a lot… but do these costs undermine the future economic prosperity of the USA or the spending is quite affordable to the US economic health ? Its no good winning wars in the ME and then the next generation of americans have lousy education due to lack of school funding. I doubt the US will remain a superpower if they have to import MUCH MORE brain power to run their country than they do now.
What I meant by the 1% reduction a year example was about how subtle the falling of economic power can be. 50 years in history isn’t that much. Also if the population grows but the economy falls… the GDP still drops too.
