many people outside the u.s. believe that regardless of what we say about how stretched thin we are in afghanistan and iraq, history has proven to them that we aren’t reliable enemies. we don’t follow doctrine, we are variable, we are resilient, and we are unpredictable. at the end of the day, there isn’t a single country in the world that can mobilize quick enough, project, retool and intervene its power (military, economic or otherwise) like the US. Many countries have depended on the US for defense protection, but many countries are having to increase defense budgets because they see that oh crap, the US might not be able to or want to cover our backs like we thought. don’t get me started on social homogeneity issues many other countries are facing.

@jerry, we have not lost insurance of influence, perhaps this is what it may seem in public statements, but behind closed doors where influence matters the most, that is far from the truth. look at how many countries went to bed with us after we invaded iraq and afghanistan. look at the europeans now, yeah they talk a good game, but it’s interesting how europeans have come full circle in their elected officials. what foreigners got wrong and what they continue to get wrong is that somehow they expected the US not to act like a sovereign country or a superpower when it only served US interests, although they themselves wanted us to treat them as sovereign countries no matter what. The US is expected to ask for permission when everyone else in the world doesn’t require it of themselves. the stark realization foreign countries came to with US action in Iraq is that, “oh my god, the US is actually a sovereign country and will do what it damn well pleases, just like us.” Foreign countries were holding their breaths for the US to bailout the crisis because that meant they didn’t have to do so or do as much.

the reason being, well, lets take china. the united states and the united states citizens are china’s biggest money maker. china lends us billions of dollars, as in loans. chinese made stuff is gobbled up by the united states citizens.

so what happens, americans panic and don’t buy stuff, so china’s companies net profit goes down. american banks fail, and the chinese govt orders their finiancial institutions not to lend americans money, hence screeching their net profits also.

when our cog stops, the rest of the world grinds to a halt.

And so the lameduck Bush administration is meeting Nov 15, not with the traditional “G7″ group of wealthy North American and European world leaders, but with the G20, which includes emerging economies like Turkey, China and India. Sharing the “power” is inevitable as other economies are beginninig to wield enormous clout. Nothing lasts forever.