Why “an absolute joke”?
Because empires are perpetually entitled to garrisons in foreign lands?
Or because endless wars exhaust every country’s limited supply of “a few good men” except America’s?
Or because our military leaders are uniquely immune, unlike foreigners, from the inevitable corruption of a bloated and expanding military-industrial complex?
As I look at it, rather than “a joke,” we are pretty much on script for the life cycle of empires. Your remark reminds me of the most ignorant and entitled football fan who expects uninterrupted dominance, as if the virtues required by excellence care at all about team colors, flags, banners, or mascots. When good people, good talent, and sound decision-making are frivolously expended rather than conserved, you will return to mediocrity. Greatness is not inherited. Endless war-making and international policing has disrespected the natural scarcity of courageous warriors and principled leaders in our society, which is arguably every country’s most precious commodity. Any society that chose to abuse its precious supply of selfless soldiers and wise leaders, would follow the path we are on, which is the predictable path of history’s dying empires which can’t survive without expanding its periphery and devouring additional colonies.
