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I agree that the "best country in history" is a bit obnoxious, but it is clearly a fact that the US is the only current super power. The obvious secondary one i

I agree that the "best country in history" is a bit obnoxious, but it is clearly a fact that the US is the only current super power. The obvious secondary one is China, but it is not there yet, and the EU as a whole has muscle but no individual country can match the US militarily or economically. Ironically, the current recession will likely wind up strengthing the US comparitive to the rest of the world. While we have 2 bickering parties trying to figure it out, the EU has a bunch and they are reacting more slowly than the US (now at least). China will fall because the US imports are their primary economic driver and services will pick up in the US prior to goods.

anamax 18y ago
> the EU as a whole has muscle but no individual country can match the US militarily or economically. Collectively, the EU may have economic muscle (well - they have GDP), but there's no collective military muscle.
- Rod 18y ago
  That's true. When there was trouble in the Balkans, Europe was uncapable of dealing with it and had to call Uncle Sam. On the other hand, the EU is good at using its economic muscle. For instance, in 2004 the EU expanded its territory by over 20% without firing a single shot ;-) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_enlargement_of_the_European_Union http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_enlargement_of_the_Europea... To cut a long story short: sometimes (relative) economic prosperity is more persuasive than military action.
  - anamax 18y ago
    > For instance, in 2004 the EU expanded its territory by over 20% without firing a single shot ;-) Annexing people who want to be annexed isn't a demonstration of muscle or pursuasion. Pursuasion is getting someone to do something that they don't want to do.