Posing a threat to the world

Lino Spiteri is perfectly justified to worry about America's military power, its forthcoming Presidential election and a possible attack on Iran. Iran has been boasting that Israel will be erased from the face of the earth, so the US is not the only initiator of belligerent noises.

Another danger that the US is posing to the rest of the world is an economic and financial one. To continue policing the world, the US is riddled with debt and is paying for goods and services with, some claim, potentially valueless paper money. The Gold Standard was abolished so that central banks could print as much money as they liked, once the money supply was not linked to the value of a bank vault gold deposit.

The escalating value of gold reflects the devaluation of paper currencies. Money maintains the whole world economy. If the US financial system collapses, as some analysts fear is possible in the near future, the whole world economy will go into a spin dive with catastrophic results.

The Roman Empire collapsed when it could no longer afford the resources to police the known world. The US seems to be heading that way and some would argue that's no problem because the world does not need its policing.

The rise of radical militant Islam, starting some 30 years ago (and well before New York's 9/11), and which believes the West is the devil incarnate and needs to be severely dealt with, poses another worldwide threat to peace and stability. It is not entirely correct when Mr Spiteri says that the US is unlikely to ever face foreign enemy troops on its own soil - the troops of militant Islam are potentially everywhere, as both the US and Europe know very well. We might be entering a phase of new religious wars - America is not the only threat to the world.