An Illusion - Or the state of the Union?

When I just read the state-of-the-union-speech 2006 by a person we all know, I had to spontaneously think of a passage in Syriana (new movie (worth a discussion on its own) starring among others George Clooney (to the deception of "Marilyn" and others he's slightly chubby and not all that sexy in this movie..;):

When a country has five percent of the world’s population but does fifty percent of its military spending then the persuasive powers of that country are on the decline.

Even though I definitely agree with one part of "W"s speech where he states that there is a difference between responsible criticism that aims for success, and defeatism that refuses to acknowledge anything but failure I nevertheless caught myself thinking: how long will people continue believing the illusion created by the sometimes well-chosen words and argumentations (but then, what about f.e. the one at the 4th line from the bottom)?)? And how are we going to tackle the problems (partly) resulting from the discrepancy between words and deeds? And then, even if the current administration is going to be replaced by a more responsible and decent one: who is going to take over the lead from this (great) country on the decline? I feel that during the upcoming years we're going to face an above average amount of challenges but doubt that our leadership is fit to takle them.. what do you think?