The End Of An Empire And The Beginning Of A Depression

[Feuer Frei!]

Today, the U.S. military is in approximately 130 different nations and it has a total of about 700 military bases around the world. But just like the Roman Empire, the U.S. empire has become overextended and it is starting to decline. Most of our politicians believe that we can continue to "police the world" and project our power to every corner of the globe, but the more we meddle the more the rest of the world hates us and the worse our financial problems get.
Over the past decade, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost U.S. taxpayers well over a trillion dollars.
So what have we gotten in return for a trillion dollars?
In Afghanistan, we haven't even found the one man we supposedly went there to look for - Osama Bin Laden. It defies comprehension how a man with a really bad kidney disease can hide in caves and evade the most powerful military on earth for nearly a decade.
But at least we got rid of the Taliban and set up a good form of government, right?
Oh yeah, we set up a really wonderful government. For example, they recently arrested a one-legged Afghan Red Cross worker and sentenced him to death for converting to Christianity.

Now we are involved in a third war in the Middle East. Even though Libya was no threat to the United States, Obama felt compelled to stick our nose into a chaotic civil war.
Now it looks like our involvement in Libya could last for a very, very long time.
In a joint op-ed piece in the New York Times, Barack Obama, David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy declared that NATO military operations in Libya will not end until there is a regime change....
So exactly who are we "helping" in Libya?
It turns out that we are providing "air cover" for many of the same people who were shooting at our troops in Iraq.
Yes, you read the correctly.
According to The Telegraph, the leader of the Libyan rebels is even admitting that his "troops" include jihadists that were firing bullets at U.S. troops in Iraq....

Sadly, our meddling goes well beyond the three wars we are currently fighting. The truth is that the U.S. military is actively "conducting operations" in dozens of different countries.
For example, most Americans don't even realize what the U.S. is doing in Pakistan.
How would you like it if a foreign power was conducting missile attacks inside the United States over the objections of our national leaders?
Well, that is what we are doing in Pakistan and we are going to continue even though Pakistani officials are adamantly objecting.
According to AFP, the CIA intends to continue conducting operations in Pakistan no matter what the Pakistani government says....
U.S. military spending is wildly out of control. The truth is that U.S. military spending is greater than the military spending of China, Russia, Japan, India, and the rest of NATO combined. The United States already accounts for 46.5% of all military spending in the world. China is next with only 6.6%.
Just one day of the war in Afghanistan costs more money than it took to build the entire Pentagon.
So will reducing military spending solve all of our financial problems?
Of course not.
The United States has the biggest debt problem in the history of the world.
Right now the U.S. government is over 14 trillion dollars in debt. Our debt is increasing by over 2 million dollars every single minute.
Our politicians are running up the national credit card as if there will never be any consequences.
But a very serious day of reckoning is coming, and when it arrives the rest of the world is not going to be in the mood to help us.
It is being projected that by 2021, the U.S. will be paying $1.1 trillion a year just in interest on the national debt.
So what are our politicians doing about it?
Nothing.
During the last election, the Republicans made a "pledge" to the American people to cut $100 billion from the 2011 budget if they were elected.
Then once they got in they told us that $61 billion would be enough.
Then John Boehner gave in and agreed to cut the 2011 budget by only $38.5 billion.
Well, now it turns out that even the $38.5 billion figure was not even real.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the "budget deal" will only slash $352 million (with an "m") from the 2011 budget.
That is less than one percent of the $38.5 billion figure that was announced.


REST OF ARTICLE


Interesting reading. Certainly to an outsider like me.

[GoldenRivet]

There is no denying it.

our politicians have sold us up the river for decades - and we stand poised to reap the oats we have sewn

the republicans ran on budget cuts sure... but it has to pass the house AND senate.

i think it is obvious that republicans said "ok we need to cut 100B from the budget" then dems said "no we need to cut 1M from the budget" and this haggling went back and forth until nothing really got accomplished.

America has some tough times ahead, no doubt about it.

people will probably starve, normal every day commodities like toilet paper and blue jeans will become a rarity, gasoline will become unaffordable and what few people have jobs wont be able to drive to work, many homes will likely go without power. The overextended military will slowly return home. overseas bases will begin to close, eventually it is likely that whole fleets (or large swaths of warships) will be placed in mothball or scrapped altogether, their new enemies being corrosion and disuse.

two developments will likely dominate the next 10-15 years in the United States: The crumbling of the economic and political structure of the United States of America and a number of ineffective reforms, regulation, and deregulation which will attempt to reverse the process.

However, the damage will have already been done. The middle class will in all likelihood become extinct or nearly so as a result of this process.

any number of possibilities exist.

but within 12 months, national debt will - there is no avoiding it - WILL outpace our GDP.

i think it is probably in the nations best interest to NOT raise the debt ceiling.

at one point or another, the leadership in this nation will have to face the music.

Im reminded of a quote: it goes something like:

"American is like the rich father who wishes he knew how to give his sons the hardships which have made him rich."

~Robert Frost

if that were true, those hard lessons of hardship are around the corner... and personally, i think we could use a dose of that medicine.

[Skybird]

Reminds me of the forum wars there have been over these, years ago:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...ohnson&x=0&y=0

http://www.amazon.com/Blowback-Secon...2951542&sr=8-3

Haven't picked up any of his later books. There are two or three since the two above were published.

[Oberon]

All Empires end one day. Roman, British, Russian, American. It's just a question of if they die gracefully or collapse in violence and chaos.

[Armistead]

They'll raise the debt ceiling using the same reasoning as the bailouts, we don't do it, the economy will crumble. No doubt we don't pay back our creditors no one will loan to us, interest rates would double, market crash, etc... So we will, but it will be putting another finger in the dam.

Economics will be totally redefined very soon and most of us will see it.

[Onkel Neal]

I have my camo, my night vision goggles, lots of ammo and weapons. When the upheaval comes, all you starving city folk steer clear of the Stevens ranch. Those No Trespassing signs mean what they say. If you want to work for us, bring women and books, preferably redheads. Money not accepted.

[GoldenRivet]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

bring women and books, preferably redheads. .

I'll be right over if thats the case

[tommo8993]

How can america complain about the end of an empire? They ended the british empire by betraying the UK at suez.

[kraznyi_oktjabr]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

I have my camo, my night vision goggles, lots of ammo and weapons. When the upheaval comes, all you starving city folk steer clear of the Stevens ranch. Those No Trespassing signs mean what they say. If you want to work for us, bring women and books, preferably redheads. Money not accepted.

Neal, are you sure your wife does not read this forum?

[Torplexed]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

I have my camo, my night vision goggles, lots of ammo and weapons. When the upheaval comes, all you starving city folk steer clear of the Stevens ranch. Those No Trespassing signs mean what they say. If you want to work for us, bring women and books, preferably redheads. Money not accepted.

In the event of a Mad Max meltdown, I figure that even if we don't have these things all we have to do is beg, borrow or steal the coolest car or bike we can and race over to Fortress Stevens. He might still let us in.

[yubba]

I'm tinkering with this.

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by kraznyi_oktjabr

Neal, are you sure your wife does not read this forum?

Yeah, but she's a realist; she understands that with the breakdown in the socio-economic structure, she will revert to property.

Originally Posted by Torplexed

In the event of a Mad Max meltdown, I figure that even if we don't have these things all we have to do is beg, borrow or steal the coolest car or bike we can and race over to Fortress Stevens. He might still let us in.

With a full tank of gas, you betcha!

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by tommo8993

How can america complain about the end of an empire? They ended the british empire by betraying the UK at suez.

I thought we did that when we quit.

[nikimcbee]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

I have my camo, my night vision goggles, lots of ammo and weapons. When the upheaval comes, all you starving city folk steer clear of the Stevens ranch. Those No Trespassing signs mean what they say. If you want to work for us, bring women and books, preferably redheads. Money not accepted.

I can vouche for this. Don't mess with Neal's pepper plants.

I need to figure out how to manufacture my own insulin. They managed to do it during WW2 in China, maybe I could make my own "moonshine" insulin.

[nikimcbee]

Well there is a Ft. Stevens in ore-gone.
http://www.oregonstateparks.org/park_179.php

(it even has bunkers and gun implacements)

Waddyasay Neal? Party @McBee's?