The
End Of An Era
By
Siv O'Neall
11
October, 2006
Axis
Of Logic
The
very notion of a superpower is in tatters. People all over the world
are seeing the enormous hypocrisy behind the power game Washington has
been playing with increasing recklessness and incompetence for the past
half century.
Along with the U.S. administration’s
continuous descent into lawlessness and strategic confusion abroad and
at home, we see more and more signs of other big powers ascending into
the orb of global eminence, making the Washington arrogant power play
increasingly seem like a madmen’s illusion.
The loss of American
self-confidence
It is the end of an era of
American supremacy, of U.S. striving for imperial control of the entire
world, the era of American self-confidence, of American innocent trust
in its leaders, the era when ‘we were the greatest’. The
American people can no longer see themselves as morally superior to
the people of all other nations; they cannot boast of having the best
educational system, the best upward-moving possibilities, the least
poverty, the best opportunities for all people, without consideration
of race or social background.
The earthquake that is on
its way is seriously destabilizing the American psyche and people are
feeling lost and abandoned. They are helpless in the face of the sudden
crumbling of their quasi-religious belief in their own superiority in
the world and their rock-solid trust in the integrity of their leaders.
The notions of American infallibility
have become worthless bags of waste on a garbage dump and nobody with
eyes half open can be fooled into believing that Americans are the best,
the most moral, the most civilized people in the world.
Even the average American
is now beginning to see how thoroughly we have been misled into upholding
illusions that we are the ones who must show the world the way to democracy,
freedom, moral values. These high-flying notions were what supposedly
justified the U.S. invasion of defenseless countries around the world,
and the American people applauded our strength, our moral rectitude,
our superior way of organizing the planet, of making poor countries
see Big Brother coming in as a savior.
When we supported tyrants,
it was played down by the media who glossed over the incompetence and
corruption of those tyrants, a devious power play that was never made
clear to the American people. Support for cruel and mercenary dictators
became a standard pattern for U.S administrations, at least from Ronald
Reagan on. These corrupt dictators would play into our hands and let
us run the world, for temporary benefit to themselves and possibly one
small part of their country, without ever alleviating the deep-seated
poverty in these third-world countries.
The Big Bluff
The present U.S. administration
has been working so arrogantly and so blindly towards total control
of the planet – and of space – that, considering their senseless
overreaching, it is inevitable that the bubble will burst, that the
time of illusions, pretensions and unlimited thirst for power will very
soon be a thing of the past. Facing global reality is a sine qua non
if we want to save the planet for future generations, if we don’t
want to look forward to a future of continuous wars, the way these ego-crazed
madmen’s plans are set, for their own short-term benefit and for
the ruin of the rest of the world.
The so-called leaders are
standing there now, at last, hands empty, mouthing phrases that were
meaningless platitudes even when they were first uttered. The world
is lying in ruins around them. Their bluff has been called, their weakness
has been displayed, their lies have been revealed as nothing but indefinitely
repeated slogans without any anchoring in reality. All bluff.
From Afghanistan to Iraq,
from Gaza and the Israeli occupied territories in the West Bank to Lebanon,
militarism has failed and the United States and its protectorate, Israel,
have been proven hugely incompetent at the warfare they so recklessly
and blunderingly depend on. The U.S. is not just up against local freedom
fighters and more or less well-armed guerillas. They are at this point
up against the world.
They are never going to redraw the map of a new geopolitical Middle
East according to their plans, because they have lost the global fight
against national pride and the ever-existent will of all nations to
defend their right to self-determination, their right to rule over their
own destinies, not to be crushed by foreign ignorant and incompetent
imperialists who mindlessly trample on their most basic human rights,
trample on their pride and dignity. All this is made possible because
of the thirst for power and thus the willing cooperation of corrupt
local leaders. The imperialist klutzes don’t even understand the
notion of human dignity.
These predators never had
any dignity themselves, they only had the lust to defeat and command
and accumulate power. Power over what? The only result is eternal revolt
and eternal strife, getting further thousands and thousands of U.S.
military killed, while the madmen in Washington fantasize that they
will one day control the world. And this war without end would get millions
of innocent people throughout the world killed and maimed to satisfy
the power hunger of a crazed and ego-blinded Washington junta.
But the era of a superpower
is over. The world was never made to hold one unipolar power in domination
of all the rest of the planet. To profit whom? To profit a handful of
obscenely rich corporate magnates and their bed fellows, the politicians,
the rulers of the neoliberal world, with the U.S. Treasury Department
holding the strings to all important decisions that are made to suck
the blood out of the underdogs.
The Unites States of America
no more has the economic, moral or military superiority that it once
had and which it still very likely imagines that it has. The economy
is in shambles, they have no more moral authority than a Sicilian mob
junta, and their military is so overstretched that they have resorted
to hiring ex-criminals to fill the numbers needed for the sorely overstretched
U.S. Iraqi military force and the 350,000 military at the innumerable
U.S. military bases stretching across the globe.[1]
The truth is that the world
seen not through the tinted glasses of the neocon junta and the corporate
bloodsuckers, but through the eyes of reality, is not unipolar. It is
actually so multi-polar that it seems almost incredible that Dick Cheney,
Condi Rice and Donald Rumsfeld (let’s leave the insane clown called
George W. out of this) can possibly fail to realize that fact, that
is… in case they really do.
You would think they live
on another planet when they go on mouthing inanities about ‘prevailing’,
‘installing democracy’, telling Iran what they will be up
against unless they toe the line drawn by the one and sole superpower.
It would be Iran, no doubt, that would show the world what such a horrendous
misstep would lead to, total disarray and mobocracy in that whole part
of the world. Iran would be bombed back to the stone age maybe, but
then so would probably also the rest of that region, including Israel,
and hundreds of thousands or millions of people on both sides of the
line of terror would succumb. Or, more exactly, there would not be a
line but a maelstrom of terror that would drag everyone down.
There can not possibly be
a ‘winner’ in such a generalized war, or even in today‘s
war which has already become a multi-headed hydra, far too crafty and
amorphous ever to be defeated. The U.S. military may still believe they
can win this so-called war on terror, which is more exactly a fight
for survival in a number of independent countries against the hubristic
aggression of a superpower with no sense of reality. In reality, there
are probably just a handful of people left at this point who are sufficiently
deluded to think that this war is winnable or justified.
Rising global powers
For the moment, but not lastingly,
as the world rolls around, Pakistan and India are playing the game of
allies to the United States. Right now it is in the interests of their
leaders to comply with the supranational financial organizations (which
work solely in the interests of the rich countries), but what will happen
one day when Musharraf meets even more local resistance to his pro-American
regime, when the Pakistani supporters of the Taliban in Afghanistan
develop enough muscle to stand up to this U.S. puppet. Musharraf is
at this very moment feeling the heat of local resistance and is walking
a tightrope in order to pacify the sizeable homegrown opposition. General
Musharraf has sold out dearly to the U.S. and he will certainly have
to pay the price one day.
Further, the U.S. is blackmailing
India by making a deal to share nuclear technology with the subcontinent[2].
The Indian economy is on the rise, as are the economies of China and
Russia, which in no way means that the poverty-stricken millions have
seen any benefits from the neoliberal economic gains. But nevertheless,
India is a formidable power and the day its rulers get on the wrong
side of U.S. interests, it will be a powerful enemy.
This nuclear technology deal
is reminiscent of the deal the U.S. once made with Iran, under the shah
of Iran’s puppet regime. So Iran now wants to make further advances
in its nuclear abilities, a program begun by the U.S. However, times
have changed and Iran is not in our sphere of interest any more
IRAN’S NUCLEAR PROGRAMME:
THE WESTERN
OPPOSITION IS MORE GEO-POLITICAL THAN LEGAL
1967. USA lays the foundation
of Iran’s nuclear programme by providing a 5 megawat nuclear research
reactor for the Tehran Nuclear Research Center
1968. Iran signs NPT [Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty]. USA draws a
plan to construct 23 nuclear power stations by 2000, in an accord with
the Shah of Iran
1975. US National Security Decision Memorandum 292 signed by Henry Kissinger
entitled “US-Iran Nuclear Cooperation.” It detailed sale
of $ 6 billion worth of nuclear equipment to Iran
China and Russia
But even more importantly
than India with its one billion people and its growing economy is China
with a population exceeding 1.3 billion, about one-fifth of the world's
population, and a rapidly growing economy, even though their civil rights
record is severely wanting.
China is never going to stand
idly by and watch the United States further expand its empire into Asia
and the oil-rich areas that China itself is increasingly dependent on
as the country becomes more and more industrialized. The Chinese leaders
are, on the contrary, themselves forging ties to oil producing nations,
from Iran to Venezuela.
Russia is also back on the
stage since they are recovering forcefully after the IMF-assisted economic
collapse in the nineties. The current economic growth is largely due
to the rising price of oil and gas, but also due to the fact that Vladimir
Putin to some extent has managed to bring Russian capital out of the
hands of the Yeltsin era billionaires by re-nationalizing oil and gas[3].
Russia as well is flexing
its muscle in several ways, among other things by trying to keep the
U.S. at bay in the “stans”, rich in oil and natural gas
and strategically important Caucasian nations on the southern border
of Russia. The U.S. has installed military bases in most of these countries,
but Putin seems determined to keep them from controlling Russia’s
southern flank, mainly by creating economic ties with the governments
in those countries. Also, in Kyrgyzstan for instance, U.S. and Russian
air bases coexist within a few miles of each other. (The
U.S. Eyes Oil in Central Asia and Steps on Russia's Turf)
Latin America
Much closer to home and therefore
so much more sensitive is the widespread self-reliance that is brewing
in Latin America[4]. Central America was believed to be thoroughly tamed
and brought into the U.S sphere of interests after Ronald Reagan’s
devious economic support to death squads and Contras in order to defeat
socialist movements in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras. However,
in Nicaragua the Sandinistas under Daniel Ortega are coming back in
full strength, very likely encouraged by the leftist regimes gaining
power all over Latin America.
“Sixteen years after
voters [with strong U.S. backing [5]] swept Sandinista leader Daniel
Ortega from Nicaragua's presidency, the former Marxist icon appears
to have his best chance yet for a comeback in elections scheduled for
Nov. 5.” (Sandinista
Aims for Comeback in Nicaragua)
A threat to U.S. supremacy
in the world from Latin America, the former U.S. own backyard, is seen
as particularly painful and humiliating for Washington. Progressive
Latin American countries morally have the upper hand because of wide-spread
popular support and the leaders’ humanitarian-egalitarian policies
which have focused on the eradication of poverty and illiteracy and
improving poor health conditions. This is the kind of true democracy
that the U.S. is losing sight of by the hour.
The U.S. media have so thoroughly
propagandized the American attitude to Venezuela and other emerging
leftist countries that there are very few Americans who actually see
the positive things Hugo Chávez is doing and has done for his
country. Chávez is a socialist and that word has such a deafening
bad ring to the average American that no more needs to be said. Socialist,
therefore bad, dangerous and threatening to the United States. How frightening
that a formerly poor country – except of course for the US-backed
moneyed bourgeoisie – dares stand up, stubbornly and repeatedly
attacking United States imperialism!
Hubris and fantasy
However, even aside from
the existence of such varied resistance to the supremacy of the United
States and the fact that there are other emerging superpowers in the
world, the idea that one superpower, morally corrupt to boot, could
possibly control the world by itself is pure fantasy. Even with weak
and reluctant (except for Mr. Blair himself) allies like Great Britain,
plus a few minor countries that the U.S. has gotten into its grips financially
and politically, via the IMF and the U.S. Treasury Department, the U.S.
will still stand out as the one corrupt superpower with clear ambitions
to control the world.
The major point here is the
fact that there is no superpower in the world that, in the long run,
can withstand the enormous pressure created by poverty, hunger, suffering,
health crises and premature deaths. In a world where 2.6 billion people
lack basic sanitation, mainly in Africa and Asia, (UN report), it would
be foolish to even vaguely entertain the thought that one superpower
could possibly take over the world and not have to face constant rebellion
on all fronts simultaneously.
Add to that the general humiliation
of seeing one’s country taken over by a nation that has no interest
in the wellbeing of the local people, but which kills and destroys without
second thoughts, and this is bound to energize the resistance to being
dominated by a foreign country – in the Middle East, in Africa,
as well as in emerging nations like India and Brazil.
The era of superpower domination
of the world is rapidly coming to an end. The very arrogance of the
present superpower has caused its impending downfall.
[1] Approximately 350,000 U.S. troops were stationed around the world
as of early February, according to GlobalSecurity.org. About 250,000
were deployed in combat, peacekeeping and counterterrorism operations,
and an additional 100, 000 in Germany, Japan, Italy and England were
serving routine tours of duty. […]
[Chalmers ] Johnson [a professor
emeritus at UC San Diego and an Asia expert] says the Pentagon's calculation
that it owns or rents 702 bases in about 130 countries -- over and above
the 6,000 bases in the United States -- is a gross underestimate because
it fails to include installations in such places as Kosovo and Bosnia,
as well as Iraq and Afghanistan, and secret installations in Israel,
Australia and England, among others. (SFGate)
[2] USA Today:
“Reversing decades
of U.S. policy, President Bush ushered India into the world's exclusive
nuclear club Thursday with a landmark agreement to share nuclear reactors,
fuel and expertise with this energy-starved nation in return for its
acceptance of international safeguards.” (Nuclear
deal announced as Bush visits India)
[3] Yeltsin was replaced
by Vladimir Putin who was not in the CIA’s pocket, and by definition,
not influenced by the bribe money of international oil cartels. Putin
moved to oust the oligarchs and re-nationalize Russian oil and gas,
much to the fury of those who had invested billions of unrecoverable
dollars. This, naturally, explains the growing hostility towards Putin
on the part of the Bush Administration, a hostility fueled by a livid
oil cartel shrieking over its lost billions. (TBRNews.org
)
[4] ‘Latin America
declares independence’, Noam Chomsky “In the southern cone
especially, from Venezuela to Argentina, the region is rising to overthrow
the legacy of external domination of the past centuries and the cruel
and destructive social forms that they have helped to establish.”
(International
Herald Tribune)
[5] 1990 “Nicaragua
has elections. The popular Sandinista government had been blockaded
and destabilised by the USA from neighbouring Honduras. The USA tells
the people of the country that if the party it backed (the National
Opposition Union) won the elections, the war would stop and aid would
be forthcoming. Using the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the
USA spends $ 9,000,000 on the opposition election campaign.
In the USA, Time Magazine
writes that the methods used to destabilise Nicaragua were to "wreck
the economy and prosecute a long and deadly proxy war until the exhausted
natives overthrow the unwanted government themselves," with a cost
to the USA that was "minimal". (The
Acts of the Democracies)
Siv O’Neall
is an Axis of Logic columnist, based in France. She can be reached at
[email protected]
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