Reality or Sour Grapes?

I never know what to think when I read what Brits have to say about America, yet I find myself nodding in agreement with much of Paul Kennedy's WSJ opinion piece:

The planned imbalances are worrying for three reasons. The first is because the total projections have been changing so fast, always in a gloomier direction. I have never, in 40 years of reading into the economics of the Great Powers, seen the figures moved so often, and in such vast proportions. Clearly, some people do believe that Washington is simply a printing machine.

The second reason all this is scary is because no one seems to be certain how usefully (or fecklessly) this money will be applied. I wish Barack Obama's administration all the best, but I am frightened by the prospect that he and his team will feel under such time pressures as to shovel out the money without adequate precautions, and that lots of it will slip into the wrong hands. The news in the press last week that lobbyists were pouring into Washington to make the case for whatever industry, interest group, or service sector they have been hired to represent made my heart sink. Printing lots of unsecured money is bad enough. Frittering it away on courtiers is worse.

The third thing I'm really scared about is that we'll likely have very little money ourselves to pay for the Treasury bonds that are going to be issued, in tens of billions each month, in the years ahead.

And:

Moreover, no three or four of those countries -- and perhaps not a dozen of them combined -- have anywhere like the staggering array of overseas military commitments and deployments that weigh upon Uncle Sam's shoulders. That brings us back, I'm sorry to say, to the "imperial overstretch" remarks I made some 20 years ago.

Granted, I may not ever have come into existence except for my Dad being stationed in Italy with the Army and meeting my mom, but that was over 30 years ago. The cold war is over! How does having military bases scattered throughout Europe serve to help protect and defend us from Islamic terrorists?

I say bring our standing army back to America, and close all those bases. We can save money and reduce our imperial overreach. And we may need them here if Mexico up and collapses on us.