Sittingly:
1. Regarding US education vs India. The worlds top schools are in the US and draw the worlds best students. Good article in The Economist a few years ago quoted senior Indian Buisiness and Education leaders saying that 80% of Indian grads are unfit to work in India never mind the rest of the world.
Sorry, but given the choice I choose a Western trained doctor from a good school over one from India or Asia!!!!
2. Oil - who benefited???? I tell you--we ALL have. The consumer in EVERY part of the world has benefited through cheaper oil. Oil affects EVERY SINGLE commodity. The most serious being food prices and, during the last jump in oil prices, we seen riots in many countries over food prices.
I'm not a fan of the corporate world at all (especially the financial thieves who screwed the world economy) but it is quite clear that moderately priced oil is important to the world economy.
3. US counterweight to the world - the Cold War was actually a nice stable time. 2 sides, each respectful and fearful of the other, each with a lot to lose. Result - is a nice status quo system where the 'enemy', regardless of which side you are on, is well known and predictable.
Today that is gone, with more parts of the world unstable or threatening to become unstable.
While I may not like US foreign policy, or the wars they have entered/started, I am happy that they are there, that they are willing to flex their muscle and that they have the power to do it.
I don't believe that the Middle East, India, China or Asia have anyone elses best interest in mind. Niether do the Western countries and, while I don't believe that economics or politics are zero sum games (meaning that for one to benefit the other must lose) when it comes to my son's future if I have to choose his future versus 'the other side'- I choose his!!!
The US is the big kid on the block and so are an easy target. But the dictatorships and pretend democracies of the ME, India, Russia and China are far worse. Yes, the US has a few hundred 'prisoners' in Guantanemo and yes they tortured some of them. Pretty pathetic. But not nearly as pathetic as what goes on in the four areas I mentioned above. NOT EVEN CLOSE!!!
I'm not an American and, as I stated, don't like some aspects of their foreign policy and absolutely despise their system with regards to the financial system which has, literally, STOLE billions of dollars out of the average guys pockets and left things in a shambles. The political system and financial system are corrupted and we should fight like hell to rectify it.
But, in the end, I still choose THAT system and THAT country over what we see in the ME, India and China.