Now things have been done, and given the current state of U.S. economy, is it still possible for any US administration to carry the Sheriff’s task any longer? , Some Arab and French intellectuals think that the United States are no longer able to engage on other fronts like North Korea and Iran. Could it be possible for the moment?

And what do you think of this article borrowed from Le Monde, french paper?

Russia and China will dominate the manned spaceflight

In preparing to launch Shenzhou VII, Thursday Sept. 25, aboard a Long March rocket, with a crew of three cosmonauts on board, China will continue its manned flight program. At the same time that China intends to consolidate its dimension of space power in its own right, the conjunction of events as diverse as the financial crisis, the invasion of Georgia by Russia and scrapping imminent shuttle undermine U.S. U.S. space supremacy. How? From 2010, all space shuttles should be stored. Until they are replaced in 2014 by the new Ares launch vehicle and Orion capsule, the United States will no longer have any system of manned flight. To access the International Space Station (ISS), NASA will have to pay the Russians for flights aboard the Soyuz. First snag: a law enacted in 2000, the Iran Non-proliferation Act, prohibits the U.S. space agency to trade with Russia because it is transferring sensitive technology to Iran, suspected of wanting to develop nuclear weapons. NASA has obtained an exemption, but it expires in 2011. And the current tensions between Washington and Moscow are making it increasingly difficult its extension beyond that date. For at least four years, the United States could therefore remain nailed to the ground. Russia and China could remain the only to be able to send men into orbit. Thus, while the ISS - involving Russia, the USA, Europe, Japan and Canada - could pitch at the option of international tensions and uncertain funding, China intends to pursue alone its manned flight program to catch up "frustration that the Chinese have always had for having been kept away from the ISS."