He states that the situation and its aftermath showed him that American weakness (whether real or merely perceived) is provocative.
There is little reason for them to make more than token concessions, given American economic weakness and their own relative strength.
The military, while lagging technologically, has been pouring resources into devising strategies and weapons to exploit American weaknesses, it found.
Military and civilian leadership remained a critical American weakness until 1814.
They are vulnerable to American economic weakness, too, and that leaves the stocks in an especially precarious position, he warned.
By letting the dollar fall, the Fed has exported some of the American weakness.
He has become a bully taking advantage of American weakness, in the head.
And I say to our fellow members of the world community: Let no one see this contest as a sign of American weakness.
More than anything else, these comments represent a realization of American weakness shared by the rest of the world.
It's a measure of how badly things have gone that now we're told we can't leave because that would be a demonstration of American weakness.