I think you should look at Delphi or Lazarus.

GWT takes a lot of pain out of JS development and I trust the JS runtimes much more than these Malware APIs like Java Web Start and the JVM.

In my experience, GWT-based apps will run nicely on various different browsers and various different versions of each. Those geniuses at Google did some pretty hard work to make that happen. Because they need this kind of infrastructure to make Google Mail and Google Docs happen.
No, I don't work for Google, I think they are collecting like crazy and final no, GWT is not hardwired to the Googleplex; it is a very nice, reliable and well-made piece of open source.

Microsoft copied Java to the point of having the same issues with runtime library versions as the Original, Java. It turns out that Java was not a real threat (you can't make compelling, high-performance, realtime games and applications with it), but Bill Gates made sure this threat was responded to.

Get rid of Java ASAP. Next to Flash it is the most dangerous thing in the computer world.

..that nobody at Adobe Inc. seems to have a proper Computer Science Education. They are incapable of doing basic things like writing proper, strict parsers. They really think it is a good idea to try to fix "typing errors" with really brain-dead heuristics in things like the PDF or Flash parsers.
What is the result of all that incompetence ? Adobe products are the Premier Malware API. When I have my tinfoil hat donned, I always claim they are in the pay of Beijing.

That was also my experience. GWT is really fantastic, especially because it is free and you can use it in the way you decide. For example, you can have server code in any language you chose..

..allows for debugging via Eclipse.

GWT is a quite solid environment and "feels" very much like common Java GUI development. But yeah, Java is quite strongly typed... Removing all the hassle of application deployment (== registry mess, DLL hell) is indeed a rational goal to go after.

..everybody uses statically typed languages. Aerospace, Medical instruments - code can kill people. That's why statically typed languages such as Ada are used.

..or thousands of other American corporations who critically depend on worldwide, cross-border business being possible. Then your job is on the line when protectionism is being set up.
Germany and South Korea actually do quite well in international trade. We don't abuse workers, have excellent healthcare and pay proper wages. Maybe this is a specific problem of America and England not using their brains when it comes to worker education and proper regulation of financial markets ? The southern Euro suckers can be dropped in one bag with UK-USA. Poland, Finland, Denmark are doing quite well with international trade, thank you very much.

A) Driving heavy cars over long distances every day and B) Having shitty housing isolation.

Healthcare costs and tons of regulative papers that prevent an employee to be killed by boredom in the toilet.

All those vocal Anglosaxon Crap Economists will write tons of papers which claim that one dollar of revenue from sandwich-making is as good as one dollar made from a car or measurement instrument.
That is, because their Finance Paymasters see those sandwiches every day when they take a break from their insane money-manipulations. They never see Industrial Robots in Canary Wharf or the NY finance district. So, Sandwiches are KEY FACILITATORS to the WORLD ECONOMY ! Everything would break down without a continuous supply of sandwiches ! Not just collateral-debt-obilgations, BUT THE WHOLE CASINO would stop !!
Never mind you can change German cars cars against Arab oil, but they don't want your sandwiches because they don't taste after being shipped for three weeks. Sandwiches and cars are wholly the same, proven by Anglosaxon idiots, I mean "Economists".

The difference is quite simple, Americans and Britons think it is "all about money". At least they did in the auto industry. In Germany, there is more than money involved in the car business. Boys become engineers because there is a long tradition of craftsmanship, because their fathers show them all sorts of ancient and current locomotives, aircraft and so on. VW's long-term CEO Ferdinand Piech has an aeronautical engineering degree, which is much harder than mechanical engineering. So he has the best education you can get on earth for making cars (and many other machines). Compare that to the GM CEOs, who are all Master-Beancounters. Their cars are consequentially crap and rational buyers go for German or Japanese cars, even if their purchase cost is higher. TCO will certainly be better, as VW cars normally just don't break (except for regular wear and tear).