DougR must have heard the same man I heard on PBS (I thought you listen only to Fox, Doug?); the man said that the US will hold its power for another hundred years...

What hubris. My mother would have said, Don't tempt fate. I say that there's many a scenario possible that would change the geo-political outlook for generations. Just suppose that 20 years-10 years-5 years- 2 months- from now someone hit 4 or 5 of our major cities with some weapons of mass destruction- whether nuclear or chemical. You don't think it would change our world - and its balance of power- as we know it, Doug?