On 9/10/2010 5:18 PM, Matthias Wasser wrote:
> Militarily it seems equally true [...] that America can't even pacify puny
> little countries anymore.
By the way, everyone says this, but when in the past has America ever been able to pacify tiny countries at will? You appear to have the Iraq and Afghanistan failures (or quasi-failures) in mind. But before 2001, where did America ever succeed at doing what we're now failing to do in Afghanistan/Iraq - i.e., invade a Third World country, topple its regime, and build a brand new state from scratch? The closest parallel I can think of is S. Korea in 1945-49 - but when the US withdrew in 1949 it left that government in far worse shape than Iraq's is in now.
SA