A Brief History of the United States (2000 - 2009)

Economic

While the U.S. is still considered an affluent superpower, its heady days of millionaire-a-minute prosperity are long over. The decline in US economic and military power began with the discovery of an internal enemy, the likes of which had never been battled at any time in history -- a pernicious wave of computer viruses, spawned by a mother-virus introduced in early 2005 known to most of the world as "Alice." The ingenius part of this virus was its ability to transform itself and adapt, changing slightly with each replication and thus thwarting any anti-virus effort that could be thrown at it. Just as this virus was beginning to be contained, one of its offspring -- "Martha" -- went undetectible for over a year while replicating itself across computer systems in both the U.S. and Canada. The damage it caused was far more disruptive than most computer viruses, manipulating and changing data as opposed to destroying it -- making it much harder to detect its presence.

By 2006, whole industries were shutting down and the Wall Street exchanges were even infected, causing massive panic as well as a devastating market crash. A national emergency was declared, and hundreds of billions of dollars began to be funnelled into solving the problem. Resolution finally came in the form of a complete rebuilding of the U.S. internet's infrastructure -- at a staggering cost of over a trillion dollars. Limited instances of Alice and Martha have cropped up in Europe and Japan, but the damage caused in these countries has so far been minimal.

Theories abound as to the origin of this super-virus, but all of them point to some form of highly developed sabotage operation; it is clear that terrorism has hit the digital age. A special bureau, the Infrastructure Protection Agency (IPA) was created, with special anti-terrorist resources to combat future infections.

Political

In a close vote (that was recounted several times), the US Congress finally decided not to expel Florida from the union, a motion that gained popularity among many other states after Florida's shockingly inept handling of the 2000 Bush-Gore election. In the aftermath, however, the Electoral College was disbanded and replaced by a more purely democratic system. While a blow against state's rights, it has put the American people more in charge of their leadership, something that is reflected by the way American President's now tend to be more influenced by the daily popularity polls than they are by any national security issues.

Most incumbent politicians were dethroned in 2006 due to the computer virus calamity, except for the teflon-coated President Baldwin. After successfully defeating Malaysia in the brief US-Malaysia conflict in 2008 (see After Action Report of the Battle of Brunei, for details), Alec Baldwin was once again elected to serve a second term as President with a significant majority of the popular vote.

Shortly after the election, however, President Baldwin became embroiled in a scandal over alleged contributions to his campaign from the People's Republic of China. While it is still unclear at this time what the President's knowledge was concerning those contributions, subsequent investigations uncovered an immense system of espionage linking some of the nation's highest level board rooms and government offices directly to Beijing. One scandal that emerged, for example, concerned two aircraft industry executives who were tried for treason for attempting to distribute top secret information on the the F-117 Stealth Fighter and other forms of stealth technology. It is believed that the executives were entrapped by CIA operatives before the information was passed on, but this is not known for sure.

New security systems have been emplaced thoughout the military-industrial complex to combat any future attempts at espionage by China or any other country, but it is not known how much damage the previous leakage may have caused.

Already the next crop of Presidential hopefuls are making hay out of these issues as they cast their eyes toward the next Presidential race in 2012, with the most promising candidate at this point being talk show host and entertainment mogul, Oprah Winfrey.

Foreign Policy

With the increasing incidents of terrorism over the past decade, including the bombing of the Chicago Sears Tower, and especially since the computer bug crisis of last year, the American public has been less inclined toward military involvement than they have in the past, the belief being that such activity is probably what triggers the terrorism in the first place. Also, sociologists believe that the majority of Americans place more importance on entertainment and computer games than they do on some invasion or human rights infraction in some other part of the world. Thus, while the American public will support a military operation in the name of freedom or protection of free trade at the outset, these principles will lose meaning very quickly if they start seeing a lot of body bags on the evening news.

Military

Needless to say, the immense expenses involved in eradicating the virus cut deeply into other Government budgets, most notably those related to defense. Congress felt that the U.S. had enough military superiority throughout the world that they could afford to "coast" for a few years while the computer bug was contained and eliminated. Most weapons development projects initiated in the 90's were either delayed indefinitely or eliminated outright. The result of this reduction in defense spending is a trim, more efficient military, but one that is starting to show signs of stress very quickly. One concern the Defense Department has expressed is that under current force levels and with present-day equipment, the US will have tremendous difficulty handling more than one conflict at a time unless its forces are deployed with great care in planning and with highly accurate intelligence.

This concludes the LOC Domestic Review of the United States from 2000 - 2009. For a review of past events of other countries, please refer to the DIA International Study.