America has not always been the most dominant nation on the globe. Its military, culture, and economy have not always been the most powerful, popular, and rich. But it has been this way for all of our lives. Some people foolishly take this as evidence that it will be as it was. It won't. Someday, America will be a fading power.

In a provocative cover story, Newsweek posits that that day has come. The good news? With America no longer at the top, there won't be so much anti-Americanism. The bad news? Well, at least according to Newsweek, there isn't any. "The post-American world is naturally an unsettling prospect for Americans, but it should not be," writer Fareed Zakaria posits. "This will not be a world defined by the decline of America but rather the rise of everyone else."

The piece is must reading, but the glee with which Mr. Zakaria dots every "i" and crosses every "t" is unseemly. The writer betrays the tone of a prophet desirous of the truth of his prophecy, as if putting to paper his hopes and wishes will make them true. Its hubris is most glaring when Zakaria tells us how historians one hundred years from now will judge us or perhaps when he tells from his myopic vantagepoint of the present in which imaginary stage of history we are living. Its sermonizing is most annoying when Zakaria says shame on you to Americans from refraining from using the metric system. Its applause most insulting when it finds America's greatest strength its rapid demographic transformation that has coincided with the demise of its strength. America's greatness, in other words, is proportional to the greatness of the demographic change to America.

Such post-mortems for the American Century were common in the 1970s, a decade that ours so closely resembles in rising oil prices, declining prestige abroad, and economic maladies. But America emerged stronger than ever after seventies hard times, reasserting its economic might and peacefully vanquishing its Cold War foe. Reports of the death of America--yeah, that 900-foot-tall Uncle Sam America--may be once again greatly exaggerated. Or, then again, they may not be. Newsweek could be right and still be wrong: America could be fading as a global power and the relative rise of other powers could prove a terrible development.

If we stay the course we've been on -- debt, inflation, burdensome foreign wars -- then I have no doubt that America's best days will be behind her. Ronald Reagan could declare that it was "morning in America," after his tax cuts went into effect and Paul Volcker's tight monetary policy killed inflation in 1982. However, with the unfunded liabilities in our future, our debt and inflation, does anyone believe a marginal tax rate reduction and a brief dose of tight money could rekindle the American giant? It seems doubtful.

The horrible burden right now is the "war on terror" because as long as it persists I doubt America will be able to tackle any other important issue. It sucks all the oxygen out of the room. Ending the war should be America's number one priority.

If America's fortunes do decline it won't be because of "Muslims who hate our freedoms," or "global jihadists," but our own ineptitudes, follies, and fears about phantom monsters conjured up by corrupt politicians.

I eagerly await the decline of America as the global hegemon. Firstly, it will mean that America will be a freer nation. Like the Romans of the late Republican era, we have failed to realize that it is impossible to reconcile a free society at home with a militaristic & imperialistic foreign policy. Secondly, it will mean a freer world abroad. Despite what neocons would like to imagine, there is simply no evidence whatsoever to suggest that China or Russia is willing or prepared to take on a role as world power to challenge the USA's dominance. They are regional players at best.

The world would be better off without a globally hegemonic power dominating its affairs, and the United States would be better off without such a self-destructive ideology consumings its resources at home.

Yeah, and we deserved 9/11.

Predictions are like a$$holes: everybody has one.

Many may delight in theirs but it won't make it so.

The people who were in the towers on that day certainly did not deserve it.

But the American people ought to be angry at the US government for enacting policies that led directly to it.

nice work, brother