'Sun setting on American global domination' says National Intelligence Council

The rise and decline of city-states is older than the written word. During the last eight years, I believed that on "the current course" America would meet its demise as an entity within forty to fifty years. But now? What can i say? I feel optimistic again.
There's nothing worng with capitalism - thus far it's the only economic model proven to be 'democratic' as a large-scale monetary system. It lends itself to initiative and innovation on the upside and on the down to greed. Greed is old as humanity itself. It would be fabulous if money-makers didn't succumb to greed, but it's a powerful emotion and requires balances in the Law of the Land to thwart the sacrifice of human life in its name.
If America is to succeed as the nation born on the ironic mix of Reason and Idealism, she needs to become a nation of producers again instead of a nation of lazy consumers. She needs to let loose of the sub-conscious justification that greed is okay if it maintains my 'life-style. She needs to get back to some of the idealism that was her impetus and temper it with the Reason that mandates hard, insightful self-inspection.
As to being a super-power? Gads! What a freaking burden that is!! Who needs it? It's costly and breeds self-righteous arrogance. In my idealism I hope for the day when the concept of super powers is long forgotten. In the meantime, Reason says stay strong militarily and let some other country be the world's police.

That picture is such a misrepresentation of the article. If the person who posted this article is American they are a piece of Shit!

"The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated." - Mark Twain.

Alarmist, paranoid garbage. Yeah American neocons might not control the world as much but that won't make it into a warzone with "eastern" barbarians fighting over food and water!

This does mean that we could be bullied around by the next super power and being that we are used to freedom, some may not take that too well. As most freedom that we take for granted could be lost entirely.

Try GLOBAL BABYSITTING.
Truly.

I predict Dubai will be pulling the strings in the near future.

Best idea I've heard of all day. George Washington
told the domestic bloody bastards of his time to either mind their own business, or in the end they wouldn't have a business to mind at all. In Novis Ordo Seclorum
I believe was the masonic term they used which is verifyable on our Dollar Bill even now. The seclusion he was refering to involves NOT getting involved in making foreign treaties which would drag us into endless Wars. But instead making the USA self sufficient and building up our infra structure. Ironic isn't it ? Because the pretentious bastards presumed falsely they knew better, they ignored him for the past 150 years. And now after being the policeman of the World, trying to make the World "safe" forDemocracy, invading other countries, and muscling/intimidating others without restraint, our infrastructure is crumbling. And at a time we so sorely need to rebuild it yesterday, the USA is now in a Depression...China owns our $66 Trillion dollar public debt, and most of the T bills...The dollar itself has all but collapsed, and is about to be replaced by the Amero...And the ultra rich and their upper class minions which have received most of the middle class wealth that since Racketeer Ronald Reagan's trick L.down scam(aka low down dirty tricks)they own 90% of America's wealth.Think about that. 90% of the wealth owned by only 1% of the people.And thus extreme minority control instead of majority rule!!. By ignoring Washington,they subverted our Country. So what a "trajedy" huh ? The USA not being able to force foreign citizens to speak American English ? Personaly I'm glad the USA can't dominate the World any more. As Jesus said "how does it profit a person to gain the World and loose their soul " I would rather see an America which has Democratic Socialism like the European Union( whose flag represents the original 13 American colonies by the way). Thank God at least THEY were inspired enough by the American Revolution even if we were'nt. Their kids don't go hungry. They are guaranteed medical/health care, and a decent place to live in. Because they practice social Justice for all people they realy are Christians in more than name only. And they realy do own their Govt.instead of the military/industrial complex and the Fascist Corporations & Banks which own "ours" and wield it like a Saturday afternoon mechanic uses a ratchet wrench to tighten the screws to the People they've betrayed. It's simply too bad that its taken so much extreme damage,misery,pain and suffering to convince people they were going the wrong way. And to return to their roots, to start over. On the bright side, the USA has so much promise that if we return to coining Constitutional money...And that is entirely possible. Only 10-15% of all the Gold/Silver/Copper found has been so far recovered from all that exists in the USA.. We now have solar electric recharging technology and electric car designs that can kill the World Oil Monopoly of parasites...We now have the will to change to jumpstart ourselves out of this Depression...And now that Americans have been shocked by food prices skyrocketing through the roof we now have reality contact about what realy matters in supporting life..The movie Casa Blanca(White House)en espanol has a theme entitled "The Fundamental things in life apply as time goes by" Now that the USA is finaly denied the delusions of grandeur that the insane greed of Fascist Capitalism and Slavery has obsessed us with since the Civil War...Maybe things realy WILL get better. "Got to admit it's getting better, getting better all the time(Can't get no worse)" How right the Beatles were.

and i predict that for the rest of my life there will always be a war and war threats and competition for scarce resources.. wow. anyone heard of economics?

We brought this upon ourselves, the times have changed and we haven't. The decadence and corruption has to end in America, or we'll be heading down a slippery slope!

200 Years is the lifespan of a superpower. United States your time is up!

Isn't it ok for America not to be at the top of world's power?

If this doesn't wake up poeple now (at least for their reputuaion of being the best), then nothing will, the causes of why this happened are obvious and we need to act on the problems positively....

Sounds good to me. Let the rest of the world raise their own armies and we can stop paying out foreign aid. We have our own problems now.

Obama's "change" motto was right after all.

And this is why... everyone of you are being such fatalists, as if there is nothing we can do. Well have fun in your future fate, but I know I'll spend my life trying to do something about it.

Nothing is decided. There is still place for action.

So what?

I don't think anyone has it better in this world. I think the illusions of things and money has made people think that one place is omg better than another when that's not even the case. Even when a country was in power during history they were not necessarily the best place to live.

It's so funny how the prospect of the end of US global domination scares so many people. We've only been a super power for around 60 years. We were fine before then.

No one is going to invade us, we have a geographical advantage and an armed populous.

The US is the freest nation on earth but our foreign policies are as barbaric as any 'rogue state'. A loss of US influence is actually a good thing for the 3rd world.

NinePounds6:

There's nothing wrong with Capitalism at all.

The problem is with how America uses capitalism or DOESN'T use capitalism.

Capitalism failed because of the federal reserve and the control banks have over it.

When you put interest on the money created and do not have any means of paying it back you further ruin the economy every time you print money. $700 billion dollar bail-outs accelerate this process into lightspeed.

As long as America prints money and does not export resources or back the dollar, our economy will continue to fall..

The economy is now in such bad shape that outsourcing can no longer cover the cost of production. Thus, the mask has been broken that the American economy has been wearing and we're now seeing the results.

The only move to mask this economic failure at this point is to begin replacing workers with machines and automate our industry.

In order for that to happen, Obama MUST INVEST TAX DOLLARS INTO SCIENCE.

Unfortunately, this will eliminate jobs and send unemployment rates even higher unless we unite w/ China/Mexico (NAU is already on it's way) and allow them to be the workers of businesses that we run.

This of course will require an overhaul of the entire US school system to gear us to be entrepreneurs and business leaders as opposed to worker bees and this basically brings back slavery....

Welcome to Globalization / New World Order...

My name is IMMININT and I'd be happy to be your guide... Please scan your RFID chips at the door and fall into line.

Thats all for now... thanks for reading my rant ;)

Iraq was to America what Syracuse was to Athens. Big foreign policy blunders often translate into a shift in the balance of power, as we have seen throughout history.

Then again, I remember all the talk in the 1980s about how the Japanese were going to overtake us, and here we are. Nothing is for certain, the future is not predetermined.

We'll be back.

what goes up, must come down.

Capitalism failed because it is based on greed. It will always ultimately fail. What is ahead is certainly change on a global scale, and that is the norm.

I foresee a strong economic shift, but capitalism will change too (sort of like we are shifting to socialism now) and new commodoties will emerge as this nations money source, rest assured. If anything capitalists are resourceful.

But as long as we drop back from world politics, stop trying to export domocracy, stop wars, and keep up our military, we wont be invaded. That is about the brightest silver lining I can come up with!

Then it only follows that we can retire from being the world police. That if nothing else seems like a fair exchange.

It's the End of the World as we know it! And I feel fine!!

Ofcourse I have read in a magazine that China will dominate AMERICA within few decades and power will be shifted to east.The growing economy of China is the example

Anyone read read Plato 'The Republic"?

A feudal future awaits us!!

This was posted a day or so ago-- regarding societial changes--

http://www.thevenusproject.com/

i'm glad somebody is seeing the bigger picture

I think once we get Dictator Bush and his Regime out of office and the dust settles, things will quiet down. No Doubt Bush is a war monger and cares about nothing but Global Domination. Good Riddance!

Jess
http://www.Privacy-Center.net

I see nothing wrong with the United States becoming a second rate power. If fact throughout the majority of our history, thats what we were. It wasn't until after WW II with the rise communism and the military industrial complex that we took on the mantle of "superpower".

Look at history people. We can come through this. And who cares if we are a super power? I dont. Let someone else carry that burden a while. Its going to take a major shift in priorities, volunteering to help the less fortunate. But we cant become paralyzed and give up hope. The decadence, narcisism, selfishness , power and greed will be banished and those people will be humbled.Hollywood will feel it too. Hopefully all the trash movies will be replaced with something of hope and inspiration. V. is right, the whole world is connected now, so we will need to stop tearing down our neighbors and find common ground and strengths to survive.

Yea, they may say that the shift may move from the west to the east.. i.e. China, however looking at the way the Chinese are polluting their country and poisoning their people, I reckon they may not even last that long as a major player. Further, the East is export economies and the way that consumers are consuming less, they may have a few issues coming their way.

That's exactly why America is so jumpy these days - and has been getting increasingly so over recent years. I foresee a period of very strong protectionism, perhaps even with the US retreating further and further into itself as the East gets more control. It's something they know they ultimately can't fight, no matter how much they're currently in denial.

This is true but, i feel there is also hope. When the concern over resource based conflict enters the picture it is important to remember that water (not oil) will be at the center. Countries will measure wealth based on the amount of fresh water within there borders and wars will be fought over an actual need to survive. From where I sit, in Michigan, I feel that if we protect our Great Lakes and punish polluters we will hold on to a bit of security in this unknown and potentially explosive future.

i don't think those in power are going to relinquish american hegemony voluntarily. i predict some pretty severe resource wars in the years to come. doesn't matter if we lose economic supremacy if we retain military supremacy. free market globalism has always been bolstered by military intimidation. as our economic and political leverage decreases, our war mongering will likely increase.