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| Decline and Fall - How not to act like a great power |
| 2006-11-27 |
| Pretty bleak, but right on spot at least on the will issue. And that goes doubly for the rest of the West.' by Irwin M. Stelzer AMERICA IS FINISHED as a great power. Not because it no longer possesses the resources, but because it has lost the will. That was brought home to me on both ends of a recent trip through London's Heathrow airport en route to Phoenix. * No great power permits its citizens to be discriminated against. Yet just keep your eyes open as you go through security at Heathrow (or any other international airport). Off goes your jacket. Off comes your wife's jacket, like yours, to be deposited in a heap in a plastic bin headed through a machine designed to detect something or other. Next comes a Middle Eastern woman, clad head to toe in a black garment, loose-fitting enough to conceal a weapon of mass destruction. No one dares impede her progress through the detectors. America makes no move to tell the world's authorities that its citizens are not terrorists, and that any sensible program based on statistical probability--some call it profiling--would reverse security priorities. Jimmy Carter proved that any third-rate power can lay hands on American citizens without consequences. The world got the clue, and now treats us accordingly. |
| Posted by:anonymous5089 |
| #18 Wonder what happen if Persian Gulf oil fields were Dr Strangeloved |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2006-11-27 23:02 |
| #17 #12 - As long as anyone in the world buys oil, the sellers of oil can make money from them, don't matter where it's produced or where it's consumed, as long as the oil gets to where it's wanted, and the money gets back to where it's produced. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2006-11-27 22:37 |
| #16 Yah, we are catering to Muslims. That is, we are subordinating Western life to accomodate savages who aspire to work as taxi drivers. The West needs Muslims like we need the AIDS virus. |
| Posted by: Sneaze Shaiting3550 2006-11-27 17:52 |
| #15 Oil is a fungible commodity, so it doesn't really matter where specifically our oil comes from; the fact that we use any at all keeps it "scarce" and affects prices.... |
| Posted by: Mark E. 2006-11-27 15:45 |
| #14 Oh, and to clarify, the US only produced domestically 40-45% of its needed supplies. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2006-11-27 14:04 |
| #13 Top 15 countries |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2006-11-27 14:03 |
| #12 Question for you all: How much of our oil in percentage do we get from the Arabs? A relative of mine said it is about 25% of our total oil. I thought the number was higher. I know some of you on the 'Burg are much more a tuned or have worked in the oil sector. What's the real deal? |
| Posted by: Broadhead6 2006-11-27 13:47 |
| #11 I'd annex the Sudetenland and sign a nonagression pact with Russia... Lol! |
| Posted by: Mark E. 2006-11-27 13:36 |
| #10 Just like the rest of us, lol. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2006-11-27 12:35 |
| #9 Oops, it was 40... so in the 3 intervening years it's only gained 10km, lol. |
| Posted by: .com 2006-11-27 12:28 |
| #8 BTW, as happens with most everything else over time, lol, that strip seems to be expanding in width... IIRC, it started out as 30km, lol. |
| Posted by: .com 2006-11-27 12:21 |
| #7 Ancient history, lol. I'll bet 60% (or greater) have never heard of The Republic of Eastern Arabia. Hmmm, I wonder who came up with that name... wasn't me... ;-) |
| Posted by: .com 2006-11-27 12:20 |
| #6 Reminds me of a concept someone close to Rantburg once advocated, about a 50 km wide strip of sand on the west side of the Persian Gulf .... |
| Posted by: Steve White 2006-11-27 12:10 |
| #5 EUrope isn't a country. Sheesh. It's a holding pen for previously Islamic and Middle Kingdom lands, lol. |
| Posted by: .com 2006-11-27 11:27 |
| #4 The pre-1941 US fit most of the "no great power" items in this list yet I think few would say a decade later that the US wasn't a Great Power. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2006-11-27 11:25 |
| #3 Just imagine if any other country had the US Military (Forget the ethics we impose, think: resources, budget, technology, and training) at its disposal, what would they do with it? Solve the Jewish problem once and for all! |
| Posted by: Proud EUropean 2006-11-27 11:16 |
| #2 Yep. The notion that if we stop buying it the shit will end is simply stupid - someone else (e.g. China) will take up any slack. There is only one answer, take the funding sources away from the crazies. Just imagine if any other country had the US Military (Forget the ethics we impose, think: resources, budget, technology, and training) at its disposal, what would they do with it? Lol. A challenge: country by country, can the RB denizens offer any guesses? |
| Posted by: .com 2006-11-27 11:10 |
| #1 Take the oil. End the problem. |
| Posted by: Excalibur 2006-11-27 11:03 |