The Pax Americana Is Dead. Welcome to the Age of the Godfathers.

[Mindful]

The Pax Americana Is Dead. Welcome to the Age of the Godfathers.

 

[Mindful]

***

In mid-March 2016 the world marked five years since the outbreak of the civil war in Syria. The number of those killed in the fighting approached half a million. About 10 million Syrians, amounting to about half the population of the state, had lost their homes, and about 8 million had become refugees, fleeing abroad to neighboring Arab states, Turkey, and Europe. About three-quarters of Syria’s social and economic infrastructures—including the health, education, transportation, electricity, and water systems, oil and gas fields, and grain storage facilities—had been ruined or destroyed

In 2009 President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. Announcing the prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee declared: “Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future.” However, ironically, it turned out that during the Obama Administration more people have been killed in the Middle East and around the world than during the administrations of his predecessor, George W. Bush, who became the object of international obloquy for the wars he conducted in Afghanistan and Iraq. The number of terrorist attacks and the number of victims from them has also increased dramatically under Obama. This would seem to indicate that when the United States gets involved and uses its power in the world, the world becomes a more secure and stable place than it does when the United States retreats, disengages, or chooses to “lead from behind,” as it did in the spring 2011 Libyan affair.

The obvious result of all this is that the Middle East will become a permanently unstable region, subject to frequent convulsions and pervaded with violence and terrorism. It will become a hothouse for radical Islamic ideas and groups that will attract support

Ironically, America’s withdrawal from playing a role in the Middle East did not save it from being criticized, both within and outside the region, as the main culprit responsible for the present crisis. This stems from the fact that the United States is perceived as the clearest manifestation of the West, and the West is perceived as being guilty of the original sins of imperialism and colonialism, and is therefore seen as the source of the region’s ills. It can be assumed that as the distress and crisis in the region intensify, the resentment of the West and the United States will increase. This being so, the United States is destined to discover what Israel discovered in Lebanon and Gaza: that it is possible to disengage from the Middle East, but the Middle East will not disengage from you.

***

 

[Ringel05]

I've been saying it for years, America's superpower (empire) status is waning and we will eventually go the way of all past superpowers (empires). The cause isn't external it's internal as is true with every past superpower (empire).
Most Americans develop a world view based on what the selectively filter from their chosen medias, they don't know or refuse to believe the world is Machiavellian and a powder keg ready to go off at any moment.

 

[Mindful]

I've been saying it for years, America's superpower (empire) status is waning and we will eventually go the way of all past superpowers (empires). The cause isn't external it's internal as is true with every past superpower (empire).
Most Americans develop a world view based on what the selectively filter from their chosen medias, they don't know or refuse to believe the world is Machiavellian and a powder keg ready to go off at any moment.

So are they better in or out of international affairs?

Even I,naively, believed In the Arab Spring. And looking back, (one can only look back to make sense iof it) it seems to me that things worsened after Obama withdrew all those American troops from Iraq.

The US has tried to keep out of things before. Like the Splendid Isolation. And even that didn't work.

As the article opined; the age of the Russian godfather is upon us. Maybe American hegemony wasn't so bad after all.

 

[Ringel05]

I've been saying it for years, America's superpower (empire) status is waning and we will eventually go the way of all past superpowers (empires). The cause isn't external it's internal as is true with every past superpower (empire).
Most Americans develop a world view based on what the selectively filter from their chosen medias, they don't know or refuse to believe the world is Machiavellian and a powder keg ready to go off at any moment.

So are they better in or out of international affairs?

Even I,naively, believed In the Arab Spring. And looking back, (one can only look back to make sense iof it) it seems to me that things worsened after Obama withdrew all those American troops from Iraq.

The US has tried to keep out of things before. Like the Splendid Isolation. And even that didn't work.

As the article opined; the age of the Russian godfather is upon us. Maybe American hegemony wasn't so bad after all.

Are we better in or out of international affairs? As the world primary super power after WWII our influence was great, eventually our language became the language of commerce then diplomacy, our currency was the primary world currency, our lifestyles grew exponentially. That will all change, if we're lucky we'll eventually end up more like England and not Italy or worse yet, China. Russia is doing what any powerful country would do (that's willing), they're rushing in to fill the void and cement their place in world politics. China is doing the same in other areas of the world.
Going into Iraq was a major mistake, we should have stayed out and pulled the puppet strings instead. Iraq lead to the so called Arab Spring, the problem is those who told our leaders what would happen (Arab Spring) were ignored, at least Egypt was smart enough to nip it in the bud in their own country.
Some (at the time) also advised secretly backing Assad, even if publicly denouncing him so as to minimize any power vacuum for the radicals to fill, that advice wasn't politically acceptable. Now look where we are.
Basically ask yourself who do you want controlling world commerce and world politics if not us.