The U.S is losing its cachet as a global superpower.

Forgive me if my argument seems incoherent and jumps all over the place because I just took Nyquil for my bronchitis. I am going to keep this short. I guess you're for the War on Terror. The situation in Iraq isn't getting better. America doesn't know when we're going to start pulling the troops out because it might start another round of violence just when things have started quieting down. Iraq is very much a quagmire like Vietnam. Iraq was more stable before we went in. If you recall, the reason we went into Iraq was to remove Saddam Hussein from power because he was perceived to be a threat to us. However, that theory never panned out because they never found WMDs. According to the documents that the Bush administration has released, we're in Iraq due to faulty intelligence. We did not go in to spread democracy. By the way, terrorist organizations only came into Iraq when it was unstable. Terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda didn't thrive under Saddam Hussein. I disagree with the notion that America has gotten stronger and more powerful as the century marches on. America is faltering in a sense. As Condoleezza Rice has said America has no "permanent enemies," but it has no permanent friends either. Unilateralism doesn't work any more. Sure, it may have served us in the past but it doesn't work now. For example, the first Gulf War was only hugely successful because we had the help of other nations. The new global order and new superpowers I'm talking about are China, European Union, and the United States. The U.S is no longer the huge 800-pound gorilla in the room. None of them dominate over each other. I guess the U.S will have to share the spotlight with the EU and China. Are you familiar with the geopolitical market? The EU sees themselves as the mediator between America and China. The EU is doing much better than the U.S as of late. For example, each year, the EU opens up a new oil route to transport oil from Libya, Algeria or Azerbaijan to Europe. As my political science professor once said: "What other superpower grows by an average of one country per year, with others waiting in line and begging to join?" Certainly, not the U.S. As a matter of fact, Turkey has been stepping up efforts to join the E.U but they have refused to align with the U.S. As you may recall from 2003, Turkey refused to let the U.S use its airspace in the invasion of Iraq. Also, Turkey receives almost 20 BILLION dollars a year in investments from the EU. At this point, Turkey might be more reliant on Europe. Furthermore, the EU market is the world's largest. European technologies are setting the global standard and Europe gives the most in aid for developing nations. As a sign of America's weakness in the global economy, the dollar has sunk to new lows against the euro. According to my calculations, a dollar is only worth 0.68 euro. That says a lot about how far we've fallen. Currently, London reigns supreme as the world's financial capital for stock listing. Even the Chinese companies are choosing to list their stocks in London as opposed to New York. America's share of the global exchange market has dropped to 65%. Third-world countries no longer want to emulate the U.S. For example, take the African Union that was recently created. The U.S is simply having difficulties with the rise of Europe. For example, the E.U was invited to the EAC meetings while the U.S was not. China is a rising global superstar in its own right. China is on its way to the top through strategic alliances with third-world countries that the U.S doesn't want to do business with. There are several 'rogue nations' that have a lifeline from China. Since you want to talk about statistics, studies have shown that China is exporting weapons at a clip the Soviet Union used to export during the Cold War. As an affront to America, China is planning to launch their own regional monetary fund with Japanese support. Asia has become less and less dependent on the U.S due to in part by China's spectacular rise. There are several trade organizations that have spring up in Asia over the year with the most notable of them being ASEAN. China asserts its influence in the Asian economy by lowering tariffs and lending money to the poorer nations. For the record, many Asian nations are aligning themselves with China as opposed to the US with the exception of Taiwan. Political scientists have noticed that they are balancing against the US. From what I've noticed, these superpowers will be feuding over the new second-world countries. It's going to be similar to the Cold War when we were feuding with Russia for countries not to turn Communist.