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Precisely. In Germany, once the most militaristic society on earth, you can now get a perfect cappuccino on every block. And Germans have become as aggressive as Caspar Milquetoast. The Russians? Moscow has turned into latte land, and so the remnants of the Red Army cannot even overwhelm a bunch of bedraggled Chechens. Why does Israel, a modern-day democratic Sparta, talk withdrawal from Lebanon? Just count the espresso machines on Tel Aviv's Shenkin Street.
Which brings us to the decline and fall of the American empire. Yes, the mightiest nation on earth still slugs it out with the Saddams and the Milosevics. But willpower is melting away like foamed milk on top of a double-shot decaf. The numbers speak for themselves. At the beginning of this decade, there were but 500 "gourmet coffeehouses" in the U.S., says the National Coffee Association; now there are 7,000, including 2,000 Starbucks.
Why great empires thus falter was explained by a 16th century Arab physician. Imbibe the brew, he warned, and "the body becomes a mere shadow of its former self. The heart and the guts are so weakened..." Or, in modern parlance, you polish either your gold-plated Melior or your M-16. You can't launch a Hellfire missile with a frappuccino in hand. Pleasure trumps prowess.
So, move over, America--and we can forget about Europe. The 21st century will belong to China and India. They have a billion tea-slurping people each, and there isn't a Starbucks in sight on Tiananmen Square.