Superpower

What makes a country a superpower?  That question was posed last week to America’s current top military man in the form of this question, “Is Russia still a superpower?”

General Dempsey answered thusly – the components that define a superpower are:

• Military power
• Diplomatic power
• Economic power

That’s Dempsey’s order - we will come back to the order in a bit. 

Now, if you look above, at the very top of this page, Dempsey’s predecessor described the key security threat to our own country, three years ago, as debt.  Not a deterioration of our military capability or power.  Not a diminution of our diplomatic capability or power. But debt – very much an economic condition. 

An economic power condition.  The massive burden of debt. 

When Admiral Mullen made his statement the stated US debt – by no means the real US debt – was $ 13.375 Trillion.

Today, the stated US debt has risen to $ 16.739.  Up $ 3+ Trillion in 3 years.

You don’t need TheFundamentals to draw the obvious conclusion that the threat has grown – by quite a bit.  Think about that – the key national security issue is worsening and the American political/bureaucratic/military leadership wants to focus on Syria.

No one asked Dempsey what he saw as the key security threat to America, today.  But if we go back to Dempsey’s list, the list of the three power components that together constitute a superpower – we can safely say no superpower attains such overall status without a strong economic base on which to build its military and diplomatic power bases.

Playing around with distractions such as Syria and ignoring self destructive behavior such as uncontrolled debt build up is not indicative of a commitment to maintaining superpower status.  It is either a willful plan to diminish superpower status or a self deceptive willingness to test the limits of economic deterioration without triggering the loss of superpower status.

Now, if it’s the former, we are not quite there but the last 8 or 10 years have moved us closer to the goal.  If it’s the latter, the mission is similarly well underway – and there will be no magical destination point; instead it will just be a steady decline – which is a fair assessment of our current situation.

Mullen was not afraid of drawing a line for all to see – get your economic house in order or America will face national security challenges unlike anything coming from any other source.  Mullen’s boss ignored his warning.  The congress ignored his warning.  The electorate, last November ignored his warning.  Mullen’s successor is ignoring the warning too.

America is on a course of removing the underpinning of its superpower status – a powerful economy which by definition requires great wealth creation capability – grow, extract, manufacture goods and services and a strong financial condition – live within our means, pay our bills on time, pay off debt.

The last American president to understand this issue was a former military man – five star General DDEisenhower.   He pleaded with the American people and its bureaucrats and its military establishment to understand and set priorities and use our resources carefully – frugally – wisely.  Please go to:  http://thefundamentalsus.blogspot.com/2011/05/eisenhower-looks-forward.html

For fifty years we, all of us, have ignored what this man understood about the fragility of superpower status.  General Eisenhower was no genius but he did have common sense.  And he used it.