"Gomez Addams" wrote in message
...
Are we losing our status as the most powerful country in the world
and could
other countries catch up?

Many parts of the US are deindustrializing. Engineering,
manufacturing and hi-tech jobs are disappearing and being replaced
with services jobs. (most in low paid domestic services: the job led
recovery is a bit of a sham)

Concurently India and China are industrialising. In fact in the
current globalisation climate many of the engineers gaining skills are
indians and chinese in their home countries as western companies move
their manufacturing and R&D efforts to those countries. Many also
gain skills expating in the USA under varous visas. In addition those
countries have sizable and capable R&D capabilties of their own.
With populations of 1 billion or so each some of them are going to be
good engineers and they will thus be able to put together some clever
projects.

I suspect that the current desperate actions by neocons to get
something happening in Iraq and the middle east relate to the
realisation that the gap is closing and capable weapons and technology
is going to be available to the Arabs.






"Krztalizer" wrote in message
...

WASHINGTON - The success of the Indian air force against American
fighter planes in a recent exercise suggests other countries may
soon
be able to threaten U.S. military dominance of the skies, a top
Air
Force general said Wednesday.

"We may not be as far ahead of the rest of the world as we
thought we
were," said Gen. Hal M. Hornburg, the chief of Air Combat
Command,
which oversees U.S. fighter and bomber wings.

I'd say the same thing if I wanted the Raptor and the Jayesseff
funded.

v/r
Gordon