You guys bite . . .
BTW, I've been to Europe, and when I wasn't gasping for breath on a hot day around sweaty smelling taxi drivers who never heard of soap. I was trying to find a hotel that didn't have a "please don't feed the rats" sign.
Ever been to Houston?
European pansies will never dethrone the US. They need the US to bail em out of every war, feed their people, stabilize their money, give them jobs, etc. Then they turn on us and blast our culture, HAH!
Dude the most costly wars in European history . . . were within Europe; albeit we did bail them out. Other than 'Nam we rarely openly engaged in European instigated offenses on other continents (typically we covertly supported wars of independence such as French/Algerian). We are unwittingly positioning ourselves as the 800lb gorilla. We cannot alienate the world b/c they can make it without us. They do need us to continue buying their crap but as developing nations mature they will use their collective power to exert influence within regions (ASEAN) and the world. Europe just has a head-start on this process.
I'm not afraid to be proud of my country and its accomplishments.
I agree with you wholeheartedly. But we cannot turn a deaf ear to legimate complaints. The truth is that our great nation of great people and great achievements . . . have despicable episodes in our distant AND RECENT past. Other countries will continue to beat us over the head with our past until we come to terms about Chile, Iran, Iraq, Algeria, Phillipines, Peru, Nicaragua, Cuba, etc. False statements by regimes (and less than flag-waving ATOT posters) should not go unchallenged. But it's hard to look sincere when we can only find inadequacies in others and superlatives in ourselves.
China is profiting from industrialization which will soon prove hollow w/o enterprise. The main threats to continued US domination of the world economically are its continued progression down a big government path and lack of new markets.
Where is the sacred scroll bequeath to Reagan and his minions that big government is bad unless it is the military? Make a list of countries that spend a comparable % of annual budgets on the military/defense complex . . . not good company. And we did that well before 9/11 apparently defending ourselves from guys that say "eh" after every question, people willing to work for $2/hr, and rafts in the Carribbean. China hollow? Watch as our trade deficeit with China continues to mushroom. And OUR progression to big government was supposedly stymied by electing GWB . . . damn if that wasn't false advertising. Developing populations yearn for new products the problem is that most of the products will be made somewhere other than the USA b/c much of our "industrial complex" has been shipped to another nations in search of lower production costs. Maybe GWB can stymie the exodus with $400B/yr defense spending doled out to the states like so much . . . um, PORK.
GWB, 'pubs, and definitely not 'crats (or rats if you prefer) do not have the will to tell the people the truth about our future. For instance, the White House no longer uses 10yr budget projections in public briefs just 5yr (today's WSJ). We already have Social Security and Medicare. That's mad cheddar until all the old (and next in line to be old) folks croak. Our president says "a promise is a promise . . . and I do what I say I will do". But the math doesn't work. Prescription drug benefits, expanded eligibility, adjustments for inflation, and no decrease in benefits are pipe dreams without a massive infusion of cash (that's tax increases for the fiscally-challenged) or unprecedented economic growth . . . and we know what the Fed thinks about that. I include defense spending in our social welfare, although the promises are only to GD, Boeing, L-M, and whatever senator chairs foreign relations. But it's just as much an entitlement program as anything else b/c 'Pubs always want an increase and Dems' are afraid of looking "soft". So we are already committed to spending well over $1T/yr on stuff that will only get more expensive; plus servicing the $5T (and counting) debt. I'm sorry but we're looking alot like ENE and GBLX.