The big lesson from the last 30 years is that who your enemy is dictates how you have to fight them. This is why China is “winning”.
The U.S. went from fighting countries to fighting small groups of individuals. We keep losing that battle. Because we (so far) refuse to declare unconditional war on all individuals. This is a good thing and needs to be reinforced.
Communist China has always been at war with all individuals, thus looks like a winner compared to the chaos in “the West”.
Western Europe is in a super shitty compromise. Ineffectual war on individuals with total technological and military incompetence. Worst of both worlds.