...hand-in-hand with US "hard" power.
Basically, we spend a lot of money on nothin' but the right to say we spend a lot of money. Our real "hard" power was our control of the reserve currency and de-facto control of the global banking system.
Our capacity for modern warfare - cyber ops, infosec, sabotage, corruption, etc - is practically nil compared to many of our "weaker" adversaries. As you point out in your thread, we can't seem to win "hot" wars...
