Dominance
The doomsayers and naysayers have already written off the dominant role that the U.S.A. has played in world politics. They are projecting 50 percent unemployment, a plummet of 90 percent in the stock market and a 100 percent inflation figure. The possibility of a default on U.S. loans and debts is being called an economic calamity.
I do not believe that this deficit crisis is the end of U.S. influence in the world. Since 1941, America has been the outstanding nation for good in the world. We have been the most powerful and generous state in the battle against the Soviet Union in the past, and world communism.
Although the U.S. is only about 300 years old, we have stepped to the forefront. European countries many centuries older have claimed dominance and then stepped aside in the pages of history. These are some cultures that have conquered and failed; this is NOT what will befall the U.S.
Alexander the Great, son of Philip of Macedonia, carried Greek culture, taught to him by Aristotle, through the known world. His triumphs in the Middle East and India are legendary. After his death, his victories were only memories.
The Romans next took the mantle of dominance and were victorious in Europe, North Africa and Palestine. They ruled, mercilessly and efficiently and built many bridges and highways for their forces. The Goths and Visigoths overpowered the Romans when they got too soft. “Bread and Circuses” was their strategy for assuaging the masses.
The Spanish Conquistadores made many discoveries and captured much territory in the new world. Spain was the leader on the European continent from 1492 until its defeat at the hands of the British at Trafalgar in 1805. Portugal and its navigators ruled many lands.
“The sun never sets on the British Empire” was a way of saying that England had many possessions in the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. India, South Africa, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Palestine, Jordan, Gibraltar and Ceylon were under British rule. It came to an end in the 1940s, after WWII.
France under Napoleon Bonaparte spread the Napoleonic Code throughout Europe. Russia was his downfall. He was confined to St. Helena’s, a bleak island off the coast of Africa.
Hitler’s Third Reich was supposed to last 1000 years. Germany’s quest for world dominance ended in a bunker in Berlin, where Hitler committed suicide in May 1945.
The failure of the United States is many years away. We have our three houses of government and a brilliant Constitution, hammered out by our founding fathers. The world still looks to us for leadership.
This past crisis only gave me more confidence in the U.S.A. as a leader in the world.
