It's a little known fact, but soros tried to pull the same game he did on the hongkong dollar during the asian crisis, it was working too but got the attention of the chinese govt, they basically said cant let a few investor do this shit to a country, and put the chinese govt behind it and wrote a blank check to support the hongkong dollar. Soros had to pull out and lost a lot of money. edit: ok maybe not a little known fact, found tons articles on google. Here's one, although it said hk govt, in reality it was the mainland china govt that went all in behnd the scene, soros got his ass handed to him.
Weapons require people (read: salaries), imports, oil, and maintenance... As long as the world keeps letting us roll our balances from one credit card to another that's fine... when the money runs out, our pants are down. I think we're borrowing something like $0.42 for every dollar spent.
There is something called "conscription" that is "non-negotiable and compulsory" during times of war. Labor will not be a problem and the money never runs out so long as a sovereign government controls the printing press... just worth less. Whether those who serve get paid with anything worth more than toilet paper won't really matter though because they won't have any choice anyway. Also, sourcing oil and other natural resources will not be a problem to a country with the military muscle to take it. I'm sure our neighbors in the Great White North won't mind if we need some in an emergency .
I think that bit about Soros and HK is in one of Drobny's books - Inside the House of Money, or the new one - Invisible Hands
Good luck with all that theory ... here's an eye-opener: The Rise and Fall of the Great Empires, Paul Kennedy
I am really not sure how this is related to your point about debt and interest payments. Maybe I am missing the point you're really trying to make.
The US does have one option at maintaining economic supremacy. But it won't be the same as the credit fueled post Bretton Woods I 1971 era we now know. It will require the US to keep a balanced budget and once again become a net global exporter. In theory, the US can tell all its foreign creditors to go to hell. It would then back the US Dollar with gold once again. The US, by far as an individual nation has the most gold reserves in the world - at roughly 8,100 tons. Not exactly the 22,000 tons it had after WWII, but a hell of a lot more than China has today. It would be an extremely messy transition, no doubt about that. But it is one scenario I see the US trumping China. The EU does have in the aggregate just over 10,000 tons of gold. But the EU faces a test of cohesion as this crisis plays out. I believe the global financial system will once again use gold. It won't be by design, but by default. Empire may be gained by gold, not gold by empire. It used, indeed to be a proverb that "It is not Philip, but Philip's gold that takes the cities of Greece." - Plutarch
Yes, the US Gov't spends a disproportionate share on its military budget - for various reasons, but that currency is fiat -and a world reserve one at that. So it can be "printed" at little cost so long as the game continues. You can never run out of fiat money. Only its value gets compromised. But once the game ends, and it always does, the US still has its gold. Don't get me wrong, the US prefers the fiat game to gold - and who wouldn't? It costs nothing to create fiat. But Plan B is always an option. Default, remonetize...