[jyl]

Failure to invest in the physical and human resources and infrastructure needed to support our ambitions.

If you want to invade, occupy, and remake other countries, you need a much larger military. Don't rely on fancy weapons and conquered peoples passively kneeling at the feet of their liberators, because they'll eventually figure out that you only have 50,000 actual combat soldiers to control a country the size and population of California.

If you want to dominate the world's knowledge industries, you need a world-beating educational system producing a highly-educated workforce. Don't rely on borrowing highly-educated workers from India and China under H1B visas, because they'll eventually figure out that they can bring technology and knowledge home to start companies where their families live.

If you want energy independence, you need a major program to develop sources of alternative energy and major changes in your own energy consumption. Don't rely on ekeing out very last drop of global oil production, band-aid fixes like the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and scattered disorganized alternative energy programs that live and die at the whims of the global oil price and changing tax policy.

If you want a financially sound and strong economy, you need national income to equal national expenses. Don't live on trillion-dollar credit lines and constant borrowing from your economic rivals, because eventually they'll run out of reasons to deficit finance your economy.