American Recession starting in 2008.....and uh oh! Whats this? Holy shit the WHOLE DAMN WORLD is in recession! Man thats wierd. That must mean, uhhh wait for it....our economy is pretty F'ing important!!! If someone destroys us by magicly taking out the best military in the world, they will have to deal with all the economic reprecussions...
The day our economy fails is the day the Middle East gets totally F'ed in the ass by wars we won't be interveining in. Its the day China and the EU go into depression, and the day all the countries with outsourcing and American owned countries wish America was still around.

The Cold sad truth is the most dominant country, the #1, is the one with the greatest military. If your rich, but I'm strong, I'm gonna kick your ass and steal your money. Face it. Although stronger economies do lead to greater militarys if they have the natural resources to support it.
Places in the middle east cannot, but China and America are basically the same in everyway geographicly, so would probably be one of the two that will emerge on top. No country in the Middle East will ever be #1. There isn't enough natural resources. Everyone sees Dubai and is like "oh shit thats where the money is going". Well all I see is a bigger city that will get fucked by global warming. The United States is always going to be a top power, maybe not #1 but always a top power.
And sometimes you don't even know who is the top power. We defeated Britain in 1812 and Britain was supposedly #1.
Taller buildings aren't a sign of economic dominance, just a bigger target.
All I'm going to say is don't doubt America.