I understand that Tax bit Ronin. However, GDP is one of the basics for how large a debt load a government can take. GDP is production, not money made persay, but what was produced.
AS to how much of the worlds resources the US has acess to, it's more than you think. Alaska alone would be the worlds 8th largest producer of oil if they just let them go for it. We certainly provide much of the worlds food, wich we aren't supplying as much any more, since half of our corn production is going to ethenol.
I think that's stupid there, useing food to make fuel...they should be useing sawgrass, it produces 10 times as much as corn and can be harvested three times a year on a good year. Plus you can utilize land banked acres that no one grows anything on, because grass can tolerate more diverse soil conditions than corn.
The US didn't loose a "war" in vietinam they "disengaged from a futile Kinitic military action"..
Serbiangirl; Lybia is possibly being used as a "test" case for this new idea of "protecting innocent civilians" ploy they are implementing. That way they can formally use force in several countries on the pretext of "protecting innocent civilians". Plus they want to increase oil flow to Europe, while decreasing the North African Refugee flow to Europe. Much of it is politics. Gadaffi is just the poor donkey on the road when the big boys are test fireing their new weapons.