How is it a weakness to refuse to play childish games with a billion dollar+ machine and hundreds of lives? We know their capability and they know ours down to the tiniest bit of info. What happened to taking the higher road? Must we get down in the muck to prove something we don't need to prove?
"In my opinion, the world is a safer place all around when America is THE unabashed superpower."
Where does this come from? We haven't won a war since WWII, and have pretty much disgraced ourselves in every one since. Russia and China have been building up their military might at a rate that makes our improvements look paltry, but no matter what, there's still enough nuclear firepower out there to eradicate every living thing (except cockroaches) on this planet a dozen or more times over.
Superpower? We aren't even a cohesive union anymore.