The Problem of War on Terror
Just like all the other modern "wars" we run in the USA, the ones in Iraq and Afghanistan aren't working. Here is why:
Terrorists are smart and adaptive people... just like we are. Only, we use war against these people which is like building a gun that you can only fire at a solid wall. It looks impressive but is completely useless. "Terrorists" use this system against us because it's not flexible. When you start a war in Iraq, that's where it stays. They've moved on. We have not.
This is why you cannot fight terror with violence. They don't have the rules that nations do and we can't let them exploit that. They are using it, and we are falling for it.
We should end both these wars. They are illegal anyway, but that is apparently no problem for people. They should be ended because terrorists moved on. The got us stuck there, almost, as they intended. We are emptying our reserves on something so expensive that it costs $400 per gallon of gas and $1,000,000 per year to keep one troop on the ground there. This is insane.
All the while, the Chinese have Universal Health Care. They have a hard time covering all the people yes but their economy is stronger for it. How many decades of double digit growth have they had? Really, the profits on the insurance industry could be kept in the actual businesses that provide value in order to hire more people, make more investments, and grow faster. In the USA we have leeches on the economy. The more they leech, the stronger they get and the harder it is to reform. They have a HUGE lobby branch which they have shown are willing to spend a LOT of money upon.
China doesn't need to go to the moon to make real advancements. They just built the 'world's fastest train link'. In the wealthiest nation in the world, why aren't we doing stuff like that? Ah, it's because we buy nearly everything from China.
We have become a depleted country. A part of that is from the hugely expensive wars we inflict upon the world and a part of it is that we don't save money or produce much any more. The only thing we seem to be really good at is printing money. Even that is starting to look like a destitute adventure.