[TheDeadlyShoe]

bear in mind that there is no money to repair decaying soviet nuclear control centers.. this could pose a problem!

During the Cold War, WWIII was already averted by the narrowest of margins when a Soviet commander refused to launch a 'counterattack' despite the fact that their own new warning system showed first one than multiple nuclear missile launches from America.

As for North Korea, it would be limited to 5-6 nukes technologically if arms controls talks had not been screwed up repeatedly by Congressional funding disuptes and the Bush Administration. (The reasons for this are involved, but it involves the availability of fuels for differing types of nuclear weapons). 5-6 nukes are terrible, but not a holocaust.

As for China, they have no real interest in messing with the US; their currency is already artificially manipulated to be favorable vis a vis the Dollar, and they obtain huge benefits from foreign investment and manufacturing. Also, they own large amounts of US government debt; they'd lose a lot of money if the US tanked. Of course, people and governments are not always rational...

I would not say that the US is marketing culture, just business methodologies and, er, marketing. Standardized hotels, despite their soullessness, are a vast improvement on the random trashheaps that came before. Fast food chains really succeed because of distribution, branding, and costs-management... The people that run these things, they're businessmen; not really 'loyal' to a concept of America. A business that is not growing is a business whose stock price is stagnant; a business whose stock price is stagnant is one that will shortly find itself a new CEO. Thus, growth into world markets is not only natural but imperative for businesses that have saturated the US markets. Is Coca Cola cultural imperialism? It doesn't really seem that way. Is McDonalds or Burger King? Not really, although they are viewed as American brands. Maybe they are culture-destroying, but they arn't a culture in and of themselves! Interestingly, Jack Daniels is not viewed as an American brand (specifically; by Europeans) to nearly the extent that Budweiser is. (as specified in the article, "Don't Buy American", by Daniel Gross).

So what is American cultural imperialism? I think this really refers to the destruction of local culture to feed the American consumer market or the profits/stock price of multinational chains.

Well, okay, I will concede that Starbucks is cultural imperialism. None can deny that.