The End Of The American Century?

[kpete]

Whither America?
By Josh Marshall

There is no shortage of things to shudder at and lament in this current spiral of death in the Levant. But what stands out to me right now is the seeming irrelevance and marginality of the United States.

Where is America? Whoever you believe is right or wrong in this mess, I doubt very much that the powers directly involved have the will and ability to de-escalate the situation. Some want to. Others don't. But take the region as a whole and the differences between will, desire and ability fade into insignificance. (Here's an interesting article from the Jerusalem Post on Israel's aims vis a vis the Lebanese government, based largely on an interview with a high-ranking IDF officer.)

Some might say that the Bush administration's silence is acquiescence or approval of the Israeli raids into Lebanon and Gaza. But I think it's more than that. This is silence born of over-extension and policy exhaustion. Thinking back through the 1960s, 70s, 80s, and 90s -- with key crises in each decade -- I don't think there's any example where an American administrtion has so thoroughly marginalized itself or shown such impotence and irrelevance.

http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/coffeehouse/2006/jul/15/whither_america
via:http://atrios.blogspot.com/2006_07_16_atrios_archive.html#115306264778057344

[RagAss]

1. Excellent...looks like the New American Century lasted 5 1/2 years..

[WCGreen]

2. Why do you hate America...

The century is 5.55 years long...

[mzteris]

3. Quigley's Seven Stages of Civilization:

I'd say we're transitioning "nicely" between somewhere between stages 4, 5 and 6... (It's not an abrupt one - then the other - more like tendrils/fingers/waves with increasing momentum moving you forward.)


Stage 4: CONFLICT: Expansion declines and class tensions increase, borders expand, and there are wars. Atmosphere of pessimism prevails.


Stage 5: UNIVERSAL EMPIRE: Civilizations develop a single gov't powerful enough to appear peaceful and prosperous, but the few in power squander wealth while the majority struggle to make a living.


Stage 6: DECAY: Wealth is used up and economic depression sets in. Living standards and literacy decline, conflicts within the society multiply.


Oh yeah - just so you know -


STAGE 7: INVASION: Too weak to defend itself; invaders/outsiders take over. (Though I think that for the US - this means less of a "physical warlike invasion" and more of an economic takeover.)

[lectrobyte]

5. That seems like an interesting analysis, I'm going to have look

up that Quigley and read more.

[smirkymonkey]

10. More on Quiqley.....

Quigley's Shadows
http://www.draftymanor.com/bart/h_quigl6.htm

"Those already familiar with Carroll Quigley may be wondering how his historical theories relate to his other work. An Excite search on "Carroll Quigley" revealed some oddities. Apparently Quigley's long association with Georgetown University (a nominally Jesuit school) have led some conspiracy theorists to conclude that he was part of a shadowy group determined to create a globe-spanning "New World Order," complete with references to the Council on Foreign Relations and the Knights of Malta and the Pope. A couple of other books Quigley wrote (Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time and The Anglo-American Establishment) are also cited as evidence of a Cecil Rhodes-based organization to conquer the world (though whether for utopian socialism or for Western capitalism is unclear). The fact that Rhodes Scholar Bill Clinton has praised Quigley several times only adds to suspicions of the Georgetown professor.

Honesty requires me to note that Quigley did seem to express the view that a single world government based on Western civilization was the only way that our civilization could reform itself and avoid the fate of extinction produced by becoming a Universal Empire. As Dr. Harry J. Hogan says in his foreword, "... Quigley perceives--correctly in my view--the possible termination of open-ended Western civilization. With access to an explosive technology that can tear the planet apart, coupled with the failure of Western civilization to establish any viable system of world government, local political authority will tend to become violent and absolutist." (The Evolution of Civilizations, p. 19.)

But this viewpoint, it seems to me, fails to realize that a world government--Western or otherwise--would of necessity be a "Universal Empire," since by definition there would be no surviving external cultures, and no periphery. A single world government is no panacea for fractious human nature. Messy though it may be, human freedom requires disorder--systems that are too rigid cannot last. Both liberal economic planners and conservative social organizers seem to ignore this...(more)"

[lectrobyte]

13. thanks much!

[rucky]

6. China, the UAE, Saudis are waiting for Stage 7.

They'll invade with their checkbooks. But really they won't have to pay a penny - they'll just barter out our debt to them (see WTO/World Bank playbook - that we created to do the same to developing countries)

[tenshi816]

4. I was thinking about this yesterday.

In a couple hundred years, I believe schoolchildren will be amazed to discover that America was once the most powerful country in the world. If the world is still around in 200 years, that is.

[pooja]

7. Well, we didn't get involved in WW2 until Pearl Harbor... We may

quietly let the ME take care of itself and send Haliburton in to "clean house".

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. I don't see the USA as irrelevant to the Levant sitauation at all

The US government is the chief arms dealer for Israel; it vetoed a UN Security Council resolution for a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians; and it made clear it would do the same for any move to stop the fighting between Israel and Hizbollah/Lebanon. Bush and his government are elbow deep in the blood there.

If Bush was suffering from "over-extension and policy exhaustion", they would have let the Gaza resolution go through. Instead, they actively opposed it, and were solely responsible for it being voted down. Bolton in particular seems to be relishing the death and destruction Israel is responsible for.

[Demeter]

9. Tell That To BushCo, the NeoCons and the Fundies

You're preaching to the choir here.

[Humor_In_Cuneiform]

11. So THAT must be what the New American Century in PNAC stands for!!! n/t

[EVDebs]

12. Think how easily Israel could pull the US into a war via an

action in the Strait of Hormuz or bombing of Iranian oilfields...the nukes would come later.

[MoseyWalker]

14. I think

that for whatever reasons, this "government" wants to take a wait and see attitude.

Don't want to interrupt a reading of My Pet Goat or its sequels, don't you know.

Let the world burn, and see what happens tomorrow.

I hate to think of what shitface actually dreams about, but can see, in my mind's eye,..................