The Report

This is coolbert:

This news item - - on the radio today too!!

From the Chicago Tribune today:

“Report: U.S. clout will wane”

"WASHINGTON - - A new assessment by American intelligence agencies predicts that U.S. influence in the world will decline over the next two decades as surging powers such as China and India, as well as independent entities including ethnic tribes and criminal networks, gain international clout."

"The report titled 'Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World.' Represents the U.S. intelligence community’s most comprehensive examination to date of the long-term security issues that the United States is likely to face."

"China stands to have more impact on the world over the next 20 years than any other single country, and India will strive to represent one of the world’s economic poles, the report says."

This is a report - - the analysis of which is done and placed into the public domain - - once every five years. NOT findings unknown to devoted readers to this blog! Surely not so!

And, it should be emphasized, that when we are speaking about clout, we ARE NOT [??] necessarily talking about the U.S. becoming WEAKER, we are only talking about nations such as China and India becoming STRONGER, as the terms strong and weak are judged in the international arena, by a set of variables, with nuance!

Two things are NOT mentioned in this Tribune article [for what reason the Tribune did not see fit to print?] that ARE included in the intelligence report:

* Nations will compete more vigorously for scarce and need resources. [this is a common reason for wars starting!]

* Alternative sources of energy will be coming on-line in a big way by 2025, replacing the use of fossil fuels.

Some personal comments:

* No mention was made that England and Ireland will become wastelands by 2025! Becoming tundra like arctic regions, uninhabitable, due to a change in the oceanic currents!!

* Trans-national and criminal enterprise networks are enormous already and becoming stronger. Consider this too from the same Tribune today: “Criminal groups account for about 6 percent [%] of Italy’s gross domestic product”. “This includes the four large Mafia gangs - - the Costa Nostra, Ndrangheta, Camorra, and Sacra Corona Unita”. All that from just Italy alone.

And this - - again - - from the Tribune syndicated columnist George Will. According to George: “In America’s saturated [auto] market, there is almost one car for every persons of driving age; in China there are 3 [autos] for every 100 [persons of driving age], and fewer than that in India.”

Well, there it is, in a nutshell, as they say!! China and India - - - - are light years behind the U.S. with regard to general prosperity and wealth for the average man in the street!! Those guys [China and India] have nowhere else to go but up!

[some of you may recall this from a blog entry long ago now. In 1939, only one adult American male in four could own an automobile. By 1947, almost all adult American males could own an automobile. Such was the sea change in the U.S. in the aftermath of the Second World War.]

coolbert.