Many thanks. I think you got my point that the "exercise in futility" is being funded by the Chinese. When they call in the debt in 10 - 20 years time you'd better be fluent in Mandarin or the closest you'll get to a set of wheels will be a bicycle. The superpowers of the future are China and India. I don't think they'll wage war because they've learned the lesson of history that war ultimately loses far more than it gains. China will take over the whole of South East Asia, as the USA originally feared it would. The power of the USA will diminish. Russia will crumble because it is too corrupt and insufficiently industrialised. Our kids are in for an interesting couple of decades. And 100 hour working weeks, or starvation.