Trends in global politics

Following on from my Open Letter to Yankee Doodle, there’s an interesting discussion happening on Richard’s Gatwick Forum about the likely shape of a post-UN, post-US ‘full spectrum dominance’, new world order. The question was asked whether Americans realise that their present policy of seeking to impose their will by military force is bound to fail – indeed, has already failed. Richard expressed the opinion that they do realise it, but are unable to admit it. I disagree, for the following reasons:

“You say that 'they' already realise their war ['on terror'; for 'full spectrum dominance'; or whatever] is lost - but I'm not sure they do. 'They' - the men [it's nearly all men] now running the USA in government and business - are mostly aged between 40 and 70. They have never known a time when America was not 'top dog'. They cannot conceive a state of affairs in which their will, if they are determined enough, does not ultimately succeed. They are in denial over the actual situation - it is even said that 'reality based' assessments are not welcome in Bush's Washington, which is ruled by conviction, hunches, and prayer meetings. It is all delusional, and the delusion is not confined to the current administration - the notion that the next presidential election will resolve things for the better is another false dawn, because the US electorate are not sufficiently awake to the actual situation they face.

“As I see it, the trauma of the 9/11 twin towers atrocity has deranged and derailed world politics. It was greeted as a 'wake up call', but its actual impact has been the opposite - to send those controlling US policy into sleepwalking mode. Whoever engineered that catastrophe - whether bin Laden, Mossad, or a neoCon 'inside job' - has scored a brilliant victory by exacerbating world tensions and conflicts, as they obviously intended. Immediately after 9/11, the USA enjoyed the sympathy of the whole world. They could have mobilised international backing for an effective razor-sharp police operation against the group of terrorists whom they boastfully swore to bring to justice [and haven't]. Instead, they made a 'category mistake' and launched military operations first against Afghanistan and then, much more foolishly, against Iraq which had the effect of arousing the hostility and anti-Western sentiments of the entire Muslim and Middle Eastern world. We now have a situation where, because of fear of the impending consequences of terrorist and military escalation, more and more people, politicians, and countries are succumbing to angry paranoia and hurling threats and hatred at one another. So-called 'peace initiatives' are merely a facade, because hardly anyone in positions of power genuinely wants them to succeed. Everyone wants 'victory'.

“Unless the great majority of the world's population, who are peace-loving, can assert themselves against these crazed maniacs, I fear the worst. It's symptomatic of our weakness that so far, fewer than 50 people have signed the - entirely apolitical - global petition against violence which some of us launched on the internet six months ago. What has happened to the sane, moderate, democratic, peace-loving solid centre in national and world politics? At the moment, it is nowhere in evidence.”