U.S. dangerously weak on many fronts.

 STRONG NARRATIVE IS NOT REALITY

WHAT MAKES A COUNTRY STRONG?

We see the United States floundering around the world, involved in every dispute and every crisis, expressing the opinion of our leaders that we are the greatest economic and military power in the world and that everyone should fear and respect that imagined reality, the true reality is something else indeed. 

First of all, a strong country would not feel it has to demonstrate to the world that strength. It is in effect a sign of weakness. The United States citizens are now the most divided in its history and we now see a new escalation of hysteria and misinformation with Trump's candidacy. The present power structure is already accusing Trump of all the potential abuses that they are already engaged in, using the judicial system as a weapon, the politicization of every federal agency, even excessive prison terms for their opponents.  

After WW2 the United States was the undisputed greatest manufacturing nation in world history, it produced the wealth and the ability to provide the materials to defeat the enemy in the war. At present, manufacturing is only 11% of our gross domestic product. Our great economy is in fact a lot of smoke and mirrors of wealth, mostly in things that do not create wealth or sustain life. A lot of financial paper shuffling and bloated values. With a$34 trillion debt and deficits ballooning out of control this country may in fact have a lot smaller net worth any one wants to admit. Just keep bellowing how we are the greatest, and all will be well.

Then there is the continual boast that we are greatest and most powerful military in the world. With an $880 billion defense budget, bigger than the next 10 nations combined, including Russia and China we should indeed be the greatest. The reality is we are now behind in recruiting by 25%, our politics has discouraged the traditional backbone of this nations recruits from joining the military. Out of 11 Aircraft carriers only 4 are in serviceable condition. We see that we cannot even produce enough ammunition to maintain an essentially minor conflict in Europe. It is also becoming clear we have invested in very expensive and complicated equipment that requires long training times and a huge maintenance team, something that is usually not available in an actual war, even if you could muster the competent recruits to operate this equipment. A bloated defense budget that refuses to undergo a serious audit and reevaluation of its priorities. No one in Washington wants to really know where all the money has gone.

Our foreign policy is a policy of threats, intimidation, insults and bluster, not the indication of a strong nation. We have intentionally transformed China and Russia from competitors to enemies for political and economic purposes, a reality that may never be corrected. We are stumbling into WW3, and the reality is it may be a conflict that we will be unable to win. The rest of world is viewing this once great country as a tragic display of a lost direction, a lost morality and ongoing slide into irrelevance. Much of the world is based in a more clear view of this country and they realize it is in great trouble and they hope to not be caught up in its coming disaster.

This nation is running out of time, the warning signs have been flashing for years and only a serious effort in restoring this nation to a economic, legal and political responsibility based on sound principles of moral, financial and legal integrity with a real effort to unite in common goals rather division for political advantage. The nation will be changed either by willful repentance and restoration or by the realities brought about by its collapse.

 

Is their still hope,