Sunday, November 07, 2010

Is the US Still a Superpower?

When I was born the United States was the arsenal of freedom with an economy that dwarfed the rest of the world. Today, well, let's see.

Economic
In a word, no. The United States economy is being supported by China. In the production of actual things (agriculture and industry) China is far ahead of the US. Our GDP depends on "services," the slight of hand where the idea of things are moved around. China has computers, the United States has derivatives. The US makes debt; the Chinese own debt.

China also controls much of the strategic metals of the 21st century and that is a power they are willing to use.

Military
The reason why the United States is no longer an economic superpower is the military. The United States chews up a spectacular 46.5% of global military spending. But, what has that gotten us?

We have the nuclear power necessary the obliterate any nation on the Earth at will.
Yea, us!
Beyond that, we have what is generally considered the most powerful conventional military on Earth. And, along with Israel, we have the most battle tested military going. For what its worth.
We have troops spread throughout the world but when it comes to combat we cannot muster enough force in any one location to accomplish much of anything.

So, is the United States still a superpower? Economically, the answer is a clear no. We are like a ne'er-do-well son who squanders his allowance on gambling and debt. Militarily, we are a lumbering giant. Big and powerful but unable to accomplish much of anything. Does that make the United States a superpower or a pathetic titan?
The best picture I could fine of the United States
military's global influence.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This "article" seems rubbish, full of emotions and lack of a wider perspective. How can you speak about winning a "war" in Pakistan or Iraq when these are in fact both fighting terrorists. And fighting terrorists on the other hand seems more like an information war rather than a regular combat. It is not like in medievtal times when you take two armies and fight till the last man standing. There is no easy way for Any military force to end such conflict, you would have to kill every citizen of arabic countries (you never know who's the terrorist, they don't have it written on their forehead) plus remember that there are milions of arabs in U.S. alone and thousands more in Europe and around the world.
These are not "WARS"