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America's last few elections have shown it is obviously divided on its direction, values and future. Never before has it seen its national leaders so denigrated, mocked and attacked—a constant, unrelenting assault from the mass media and many foreign countries.
Yet paradoxically the United States is still clearly the most powerful nation in the world. Its economy, even in spite of the enormously expensive war on terror, remains the powerhouse of the world. The U.S. gross domestic product—its total output of goods and services—accounts for almost a third of the output of the entire world. Its economy is 2 1 / 2 times larger than Japan's, 8 1 / 2 times that of China and 30 times that of Russia.
America's military budget is greater than that of Russia, China and the European Union combined. And with the United States accounting for almost 80 percent of the world's military research and development expenditures, it clearly possesses the world's most advanced weaponry—as demonstrated in its lightning-quick victories in toppling hostile regimes in Afghanistan in 2001 and in Iraq in 2003.
And yet why does a superpower nation like the United States seem unable to quell the ongoing turmoil in Iraq and Afghanistan? Why has history's most powerful nation appeared so impotent in enforcing its will on Iran and North Korea in their pursuit of nuclear weapons? And most important of all, what do these critical dilemmas portend for the future of America and the rest of the world?
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