UPDATE 2-US clout down, risks up by 2025 -intel outlook

[TheMercenary]

I believe it. I sort of welcome it.


By Randall Mikkelsen

WASHINGTON, Nov 20 (Reuters) - U.S. economic and political clout will decline over the next two decades and the world will be more dangerous, with food and water scarce and advanced weapons plentiful, U.S. spy agencies projected on Thursday.

The National Intelligence Council analysis "Global Trends 2025" also said the current financial crisis on Wall Street is just the first phase of a global economic reordering.

http://www.reuters.com/article/usDol...41155720081120

[TheMercenary]

And on a related note:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...-US-power.html

[xoxoxoBruce]

I'm encouraged by our unwillingness to charge out to combat the Somalian pirates, as the cop of the world.

[TheMercenary]

I am with you. Maybe it is time for people to feel some pain of our inaction. I am ok with it. A few good genocides, some famines, a couple of high profile coups. It's all good.

[footfootfoot]

We certainly have enough on our national "to do" list w/o getting involved in other countries lack of initiative. Let the rest of the world pick up the slack for a change. China has a lot extra manpower and resources these days, let's let them handle a few calls. Umm, on second thought, scratch that last part.

[jinx]

China is too busy poisoning the world's food supply to handle any calls. But let's burn their flag in protest anyway...

[xoxoxoBruce]

Since India is buying everything from fighters to aircraft carriers, including hundreds of helicopters with sophisticated anti-tank and anti-submarine missile capabilities, they can train their crews by fighting pirates.

[slang]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

I am with you. Maybe it is time for people to feel some pain of our inaction. I am ok with it. A few good genocides, some famines, a couple of high profile coups. It's all good.

Who will be out protesting these new military powers? How sexy will it be to bash other countries for using military force in a civilized world of lawyers and court proceedings?

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by slang

Who will be out protesting these new military powers? How sexy will it be to bash other countries for using military force in a civilized world of lawyers and court proceedings?

Who cares?

[Trilby]

How many times do the Mayans have to say it?

[Pico and ME]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

I am with you. Maybe it is time for people to feel some pain of our inaction. I am ok with it. A few good genocides, some famines, a couple of high profile coups. It's all good.

Hmmm...it wouldnt be anything new. We are already ignoring much of the strife that exists in the world.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Brianna

How many times do the Mayans have to say it?

Only once, if they'd said it in English like civilized people.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by Pico and ME

Hmmm...it wouldnt be anything new. We are already ignoring much of the strife that exists in the world.

Yea, you can't have it both ways. We are involved or we are not. We sure the hell are not the worlds policeman and we sure the hell should not be the worlds savior. We learned that in Somalia the hard way.

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by Brianna

How many times do the Mayans have to say it?

I had a brass 'perpetual calender' made in India. It was good up until 2025, 2052, or something like that. It wasn't a prediction, it was just that the design stopped at that point. I don't know how the Mayan system was designed, even after reading the Wiki article, which gave me a headache.

It just reminds me too much of the Y2K problem. Someone figured out how much effort it would take to carve an extra group of lines into 30,000 walls and monuments and said '*** that'.

Since the Long Count dates are unambiguous, the Long Count was particularly well suited to use on monuments. The monumental inscriptions would not only include the 5 digits of the Long Count, but would also include the two tzolk'in characters followed by the two haab' characters.
The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar forms the basis for a New Age belief, first forecast by José Argüelles, that a cataclysm will take place on or about December 21, 2012, a forecast that mainstream Mayanist scholars consider a misinterpretation, yet is commonly referenced in pop-culture media as the 2012 problem. [12][13]

"For the ancient Maya, it was a huge celebration to make it to the end of a whole cycle," says Sandra Noble, executive director of the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc. in Crystal River, Florida. To render December 21, 2012, as a doomsday or moment of cosmic shifting, she says, is "a complete fabrication and a chance for a lot of people to cash in." [13]

[classicman]

Originally Posted by Pico and ME

Hmmm...it wouldnt be anything new. We are already ignoring much of the strife that exists in the world.

Well its about time we spend more time, effort and resources here anyway, don't you think? We cannot be the policemen of the world and take care of every other country's problems, can we? I think its about time the world stops looking to America to cure all its ills.

Perhaps its time America got back to taking better care of its own and worrying less about things abroad.