"Already there are indications that foreigners are starting to dump large amounts of U.S. debt. If this trickle becomes a flood things could become very bad for the United States very quickly."

The events that we see in Europe now are foretens of things to come in the US. The difference is that Europe is tackling the problem now, in other words Earlier. This means lesser pains for Europe and presumably earlier recovery.

The US due to forestalling and getting deeper into debt will have more pain and over a longer time.