Sorry for the long post, there is a lot going on there:
Conventional/Traditional Enemies.
Most nations aren’t going to conventionally try to attack the US, and I’m not implying terrorism. Russia has a very powerful-yet-debilitated military right now. They are lacking maintenance and funding to increase their global reach. They are attempting to maintain face by performing power-grabs all over the former Soviet Union (Georgia, Poland, etc). Some of the more destitute countries aren’t really fighting it because it’s in their best national interests to be re-absorbed. China is growing quickly as well, but believe it or not they still just aren’t at our level. For all their manufacturing and technology, they are still significantly behind the US technologically and tactically (the latter of the two renders their numbers relatively useless. The use of “swarming” is their best bet if they ever attempt to attack another nation or retake Taiwan, but lacking any sort of Navy and being surrounded by terrible terrain, moving out of their own expansive borders is proving challenging.
The Middle-East.
The Middle-East is a threat only on the front of terrorism and breeding that sort of demographic resentment of “The West”. The fact that establishing a “Western Inspired Democracy” will result from Iraq is the one reason that I still argue that the results justified the means to go to war. A further thriving democracy in Iraq will encourage better feelings toward democratic nations from those who are not devoted to the religious extremist point-of-view and will give us a place to put boots on the ground if need be.
Europe and the British Commonwealth.
Europe has abandoned the concept of military power. Ironically, some of the best ship builders are still in Europe (V.T. Halter makes frigates and other vessels for nations around the globe). They have begun to focus so heavily on their social and other domestic imperatives that their militaries have fallen to the wayside. As long as they can guilt the US into intervening on their behalf, I don’t really blame them. The British Commonwealth (UK, Canada, Australia, etc) are great buddies with regards to our national security. A couple of them work where I work.
The United Nations (AKA, our Cold War Relic).
By the way, the U.N. is more like a conspiracy where everyone participates so they can pick on the rich kid. Everyone participates in the UN and those who aren’t in it are trying desperately to gain membership. The problem is that they seek to pass initiatives that are NOT designed to encourage global peace, but rather to pass people’s political agendas. The point of the UN was to maintain world peace during the Cold War, but it has become the place that international liberals appeal to when their own countries won’t independently pass their taxes and social reforms.
IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE…
…Read “Global Trends 2025”. It’s a National Intelligence Council’s (NIC) projection of the world in 2025 and speaks to a lot of the ideas people have. I love bringing it up because it’s very authoritative in nature and non-partisan. It realigned a few political opinions I had regarding our policies towards other countries and it gives me all the research I need to argue with someone when they say, “But if we would just do _____ then people would stop trying to fight the US so much and we could live in peace.” NOTE: Liberals of the board (not to name names or anything), this is a really, really, really good read and goes by pretty quick. It’s not a ‘conservative’ paper just because I’m suggesting it.
