On Sept. 10, 2001, the United States dominated the world stage in a way no other country had since the height of the Roman and British empires. The Japanese economic miracle, predicted by some to turn America into little more than a granary for Japan, had flatlined. The United States deployed a dazzling display of both soft- and hard-power assets across the globe. Perhaps that is one reason China will soon overtake the United States as the world’s largest economy. The excesses of Bush’s military adventurism led to his successor, President Barack Obama, placing the United States in a defensive crouch for the better part of eight years.

Source: Washington Post September 10, 2018 22:41 UTC