You sound like a bright guy - so, I assume you know the history going back say 50 odd years pretty well.
so, what can we do about it?
We protested against Howard taking us to Iraq - but, he did it anyway - went with GW Bush - to an unjustified war.
(Even though the majority of Aussies didn't want it).
So, with that lesson from recent history - if we don't want a repeat - then, we need to do a lot more when the yanks want to go to war again.
We should look to the countries that weren't so gung ho like Howard was - countries that didn't go with the coalition of the willing -- and, see how they fared -there is plenty of them - including good friends of the USA -
lets consider not being the first in line for the stupidity again.
One thing history doesn't tell us about is that we now have a growing major power to our North - China -- which, only really is a problem (since they are a friend and trading partner) - because our Yank friends consider China a threat
So - what we must do is to be fully across as much as possible all the dynamics of 'what if's' -
ie. if the US power is dying - and, China is rising - then, it would be really dumb to take the side of the US and make China the opposition -
ditto - if per chance that China and the US went to war --- what would we do?
The obvious thing would be to stay neutral - but, that's impossible atm because of the ANZUS treaty.
If that war happened - and the US lost (which is their habit in the last 50 years) - and, we made an enemy of China - we would be stuffed - they have a long memory.
If China won (which it well might - particularly if it were China/Russia - V the USA) - then, if we were neutral - we may well be ok -- because China's history is not expansionary.
As far as your joke about immigrating to the USA --- na, nobody except the starving and war torn would want to go there -
but, it would probably be wise to start looking around the world for a second place to live if the poop hits the fan.
