The End of an Era

By Siv O'Neall
Created Oct 11 2006 - 9:57am

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] [0]

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] [0]. 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 [1]

a.. 1967. USA lays the foundation of Iran's nuclear programme by providing
a 5 megawat nuclear research reactor for the Tehran Nuclear Research Center
b.. 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
c.. 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] [1].

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 [2])

Latin America

Much closer to home and therefore so much more sensitive is the widespread
self-reliance that is brewing in Latin America[4] [2]. 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] [2]] 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 [3])

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 Ch