The United States is no longer a great nation! I hear much pontification about what a great nation we live in. Sadly, however, I have to ask: What is it that’s supposed to make us so great. Realistically, I have to answer: nothing much. Fact is, the United States is the most war-mongering nation on our planet. If we are not witlessly deploying our military in pointless, “low-intensity” wars in the Middle East, we are busy instigating turmoil that could lead to global wars – such as our lowdown hand in engineering regime change in Ukraine.

Fact is, our leadership in Washington is so feckless that the rest of the world is laughing at us. Fact is, too, that we have in sight no alternate prospect for strong leadership. As for our culture, it’s rotten: obsessed with sex, entertainment, violence, guns and drugs. To be sure, we are such a bustling market for drug trafficking that we have just to our south the nastiest terrorists in the world, in the form of drug cartels. Because our drug users are here to stay, so also are the cartels. As for our population, it is the most myopic in the world – so pathetically uninformed (by choice) that we are in no position to make responsible voting decisions. We have become alarmingly soft, with no spine in the form of solid values. All we really have to call ourselves great is the finest military in the world, which we do not deserve. Time to recognize and close the gap between how we see ourselves and how we ourselves are seen. But how?

Tom Wright

Aztec