Superpower Under Siege
It is difficult to imagine the United States becoming a second- or third-rate power. Of course, the same was true of the formerly great Britain just a century ago.
From a resources standpoint, the British Empire was enormously wealthy. With far-flung colonies encircling the globe, and possessing the mightiest navy in history, it controlled the world’s most strategic sea gates, thereby securing the world’s trade. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Hawaii, the Falkland Islands, many Caribbean islands and much of Africa—including South Africa, Rhodesia, Kenya, Egypt and Sudan—all hoisted the Union Jack. Under the colonial relationship, the British colonies (later to be known as the British Commonwealth) had a guaranteed market for selling their raw resources: Mother Britain. Conversely, British manufacturing was guaranteed an exclusive market for its goods: all of the British colonies. On the back of this system, Britain and its colonies became among the richest nations on Earth.
The picture dramatically changed with World Wars i and ii, which bled Britain of its finest men and the lion’s share of its treasure. Though resources flowing from the colonies helped sustain Britain through both wars, by the end of World War ii Britain was bankrupt. It could no longer sustain the operating costs associated with empire, particularly that of maintaining a military capable of protecting resource-supplying countries.
The resource demand void left by Britain was soon filled by the rising industrial power of the United States (and the developing markets of East Asia). The U.S. dominated the Western Hemisphere for the latter half of the 20th century, and when the Cold War ended, it became the world’s lone superpower. Its economy and military might stood unrivaled.
But superpower status is incredibly expensive. And just as the costly tragedies of world war hobbled the British Empire’s ship of state, so are the rising costs of sitting atop this dangerous and catastrophe-prone world taking their toll on America.
Troubling Trends
The American economy is now unsustainably bloated with debt. Where the U.S. once outproduced all other nations with its resource-fueled, self-sufficient economy, it is now the world’s largest debtor nation by far—a net importer of goods from food to consumables, even the high-tech goods whose production it pioneered. Saddled on one side with wartime expenses from operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and on the other by pricey natural disasters and a jittery job market at home, America couldn’t be facing a supply crunch and price hike on vital resources at a worse time.
Thus far, the U.S. has gotten away with carrying such a large deficit, partly because it owns the world’s reserve currency and nations have been eager to hold dollars in their vaults. But this privileged position is slipping away as confidence in the dollar falls and its status as a reserve currency is challenged by a younger, and increasingly attractive, rival—the euro. Over the last several years, central banks around the world have let go their dollar reserves while increasing their euro holdings.
We are witnessing the beginning of a devastating trend: foreign capital flight.
As the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency shifts, so too will strategic power in global markets. The U.S. will simply no longer enjoy the many advantages of owning the world’s reserve currency. It happened to Great Britain after World War ii. It will happen to the U.S.
But the forces eroding American dominance are more malevolent than just the capricious winds of currency valuation. From South America to Europe to Asia, many nations are calculating how best to cripple the world’s largest consumer of resources and to assume control over its suppliers. The U.S.’s shaky economic position and absorbing commitment to the war on terror is providing these nations a unique opportunity.
For example, China saw Washington’s post-9/11 disengagement from Latin America and the Caribbean, and the ensuing explosion in anti-Americanism in those regions, as an opportunity to pounce. It has moved in on America’s oil supply in Venezuela and taken control of vital sea gates through which resources must travel into the U.S.—the Panama Canal and Freeport, Bahamas. The greatest concentration of U.S. oil refineries, terminals and storage facilities, including the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, is in the Gulf of Mexico region, which means that much of the oil must pass through the Caribbean—a route now significantly controlled by China. In addition, China is establishing a huge deep-water port in Gwadar, Pakistan, at the entrance to the Persian Gulf.
These troubling moves must be viewed in combination with those of two other powers that pose an increasing danger to U.S. trade traffic: the Islamic powers and the European Union. Islamic governments presently control access to Persian Gulf oil resources through the gulfs of Oman and Aden and the Suez Canal, with China operating many of their major port facilities. Turkey, another Islamic state, stands at the crossroads of the Dardanelles, pathway of oil from Eurasia. The southern gateways of Jakarta and the Straits of Malacca, through which shipments from Pacific and Asian oil fields must be transported, are bordered by Islamic nations. The European Union controls the crucial northern gates of the Mediterranean and the North Sea, through which oil from Russia, the Caucasus and Eurasia passes.
Lack of control over these strategic gateways puts the U.S. in a very vulnerable position—one that is sure to be exploited in the coming resource war!
Can we recognize the possibility of foreign powers, when the moment is right, simply blockading these supply lines—shutting the gate on trade with the “mighty” U.S.? That is exactly what your Bible prophesies will happen to America, unless it repents of its ungodliness.
Read it for yourself: “They shall besiege you at all your gates until your high and fortified walls, in which you trust, come down throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you at all your gates throughout all your land which the Lord your God has given you” (Deuteronomy 28:52; New King James Version). Believe it or not, that prophecy relates directly to the Anglo-American peoples.
Trends show that America’s days as the world’s singular superpower are numbered. Bible prophecy describes for us how it will occur.
As the United States is declining—like Britain in the 20th century—other powers are rising quickly, and their thirst for resources, primarily energy, is also growing rapidly. This need puts these countries in direct competition with the U.S.—and with each other.
With reporting by Robert Morley
