RightinNYC

More and more lately I've been hearing people lament the supposed decline of the US as a "world superpower," whether it be regarding the economy, our moral authority, or our global influence. Increasingly, I'm finding myself unable to explain why it should matter. I agree that it's important to maintain a basic threshold of power in each of these areas, but beyond that, I don't know why we should be too concerned with anything other than the economy.

Do you care whether the US maintains its position as a "world superpower"?

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Kandahar

Yes. As American influence declines, so does American ability to promote free trade, liberty, capitalism, and human rights. Power is finite and SOMEONE will always fill the vacuum. I'd rather it be us than China. At least for now.

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RightinNYC

But at what point do you think we start seeing diminishing returns? I agree with the need for the US to be a leader on the world stage, but the leader?

Panther

That pretty much sums up my thinking. Being a superpower isn't nearly as important as someone else not being more of one than us.

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BmanMcfly

Umm... I hate to burst the bubble, but America is in or headed to a freefall...

Already, we are no longer THE superpower, look to China and Russia if you want to get an idea...

Over the next few years, the US might have to grasp a NEW reality... that of a third world country.

BmanMcfly

- Promote free trade to impoverish a nation.
- Liberty under the iron fist of the american planted dictator.
- Capitalism for the benefit of the wealthy at the expense of everyone else
- Human rights??? At this stage, it's almost safe to say that the American agenda is about squeezing every drop of profits regardless of human rights (Like how Bayer had a batch of polio vaccines tainted with HIV, deemed unsuitable for sale in the US, turned and SOLD the vaccines to China and India... that would probly have fallen in free trade category as well.)

Kandahar

I don't think we're anywhere close to seeing diminishing returns. The world has more problems than ever. I'm not sure that I even buy the concept of "diminishing returns" in terms of international power.

Being the world leader doesn't necessarily mean acting in a unilateral way that infuriates the rest of the world. To a large degree, the decline of American hegemony over the last eight years is a result of not acting ENOUGH. By focusing all of our resources in Iraq, we were not able to do other things that we otherwise could've done. With the exception of Iraq (and some may question as to whether that is even an exception), nearly every unwelcome foreign policy development has been a result of America failing to lead.

The one silver lining in the dark cloud of Bush's foreign policy has been America's policies toward Africa, where we have been much more active than ever before. We need to do more of that, on a worldwide scale.

Kandahar

Look at the vast improvements in China, India, Botswana, and Colombia for examples of how opening up a country's economy spurs rapid economic development. Free trade is the best anti-poverty program that has ever existed.

American power doesn't have to be about installing dictators. That isn't even a very effective way of projecting American power. We have other methods at our disposal to promote liberty.

See above re: Free trade.

I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about, although this post makes me reasonably certain that you're a nutter who will be here for about two days before you either get banned or lose interest.

obvious Child

I'd prefer us to not be a super power.

Then we wouldn't be the fall back for everyone. We wouldn't have to solve the bull**** problems nations have with each other. We wouldn't be called upon to be the world's police man. We wouldn't be called upon with such vigor to donate to social welfare causes. We wouldn't be under so much scrutiny. We wouldn't have buckets of crap thrown at us. I'd really prefer to be like Japan, except with more natural resources.

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BmanMcfly

Rapid economic development doesn't necessarily mean that the poor are much better off then they were before, and the same goes for the middle class.

What free trade has meant for america is that now there is virtually nothing left of a 'productive' economy... it's all been shipped off to these 'highlights of free trades successes' at the cost of the sustainability of American culture.

True there are other ways.... however, a look into the CIA's programs will show you that they have very different was of projecting power... and that's by assassinating, imprisoning, or creating a coup against the 'peoples' leaders so that a more 'friendly' leader can be installed...

Example : Who do you think put Saddam Hussein into power in the first place?? I could think of others but it's too late for me to be scouring for sources ... I'll get back to you on that, but it'll be more credible if you see for yourself. You don't have to go far, the CIA's own declassified documents will tell you all you need to know.


Human rights... look no further than guantanamo bay.
I mean the US now advocates torture (even as far as torturing someones children in front of the parents) as a means of extracting information... whereas if they even tried to do that to a dog or a cat PETA would have thousands of people so far up the goverments ... you know, that it would be stopped within the week.

My mistake about the vaccine... it was Merck... but forget the polio vaccine... although the information is out there... something more recent ... the HPV vaccine. Merck claims to NOT vaccinate someone who HAS HPV as this will INCREASE your risk for cancer. HPV is one of the most common viruses, many people are born with it and simply do not know. Therefore, by 'protecting your daughter' from HPV and cervical cancer, you could unknowingly be injecting your daughter with something that is going to increase her chance of getting the cnacer that you are meant to be vaccinating???

If this does happen, don't even think of suing... they are already protected from that, and it's the taxpayer that gets to pay for the damages.

To put it simply, free trade = private profits + socialized losses = a foot in the door for fascism.... the seed that is sprouting now in the form of the economic problems we're seeing.

I assure you, I am not a nutter... I don't believe it's possible for 20 muslims in a cave in afghanistan to have outwitted NORAD's 70 year perfect record of intercepts... with 75% success in a single day.