After World War II, with our somewhat belated entry after most of the powers of Europe had spent approaching a decade bombing the living daylights out of each other, America found itself in the comfortable role of being the only real superpower left standing. Similarly, right now America is standing tall and ignoring those surrounding her. But the recent crisis only paints in harsh strokes how ready and willing China is to step up to the plate the U.S.S.R. left empty. And they're only the first among a good half-dozen countries who are simultaneously growing more powerful and chafing under what they perceive as the United States' domination. The problem is, one day the sleeping bear, dragon or jaguar is going to wake up.
Military types are fond of citing Pearl Harbor as an exemplar of military complacency.
Perhaps they'll just be too busy choking on our oil-friendly pollution. Any content distributed via U-WIRE is protected by copyright. U-WIRE is a division of Student Advantage, Inc.