Memorial Day 2023 has come and gone. The President laid the customary wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery, the thousands and thousands of graves there and at other military cemeteries were decorated with American flags (Memorial Day used to be called Decoration Day) and all the media thanked veterans for their service and sacrifice. Retailers had great sales, barbecues were held in backyards and summer unofficially began. So, just where does America stand in the world today? What risks does it face and do we have any allies?
American foreign policy has been based on the idea of liberal hegemony since Bill Clinton took office on January 20,1993. Clinton and his successors have presided over a long, steady decline of the United States’ position in the world, from being the sole superpower to being today on the verge of financial default if not bankruptcy. Our leading creditor is none other than the People’s Republic of China (PRC) which has aggressively sought to replace the US as the leading global economic and military superpower. Since Clinton’s taking office, the US has had a series of forgettable Secretaries of State who together with incompetent Presidents have led us into the
quicksand in which we are sinking today.
Let’s look at liberal hegemony and see why we are in the mess we are in. The first principle of this ideology is so called Democratic Peace Theory. Originally enunciated by Woodrow Wilson, it proclaims that democracies don’t make war on democracies. From this basic principle, it follows that democracies should support democracies when they come under attack by states who war on them. The democracies failed in the 1930s as Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy began preparations for World War II in Spain (Imperial Japan was waring on China at the same time and committed unspeakable atrocities there.). The leading European democracies, namely the United Kingdom and France supported “Non-Intervention”. They were joined in this charade by Germany, Italy and the USSR. The dictatorships fought while the democracies stood by. The nationalists won in Spain and ruled Spain until Francisco Franco’s death in the mid 1970s. Only by the skin of their teeth did the democracies win WWII and only because of American intervention. Since then, to a very great extent, the European nations, now styled as the European Union, seem to want a good life. Seventy-eight years after the end of WWII American troops have been stationed continuously on the European continent. The military alliance known as NATO, formed to oppose the USSR and its satellite nations has moved eastward, to the Russian border after the downfall of Communism. The Warsaw Pact was dissolved. Whether NATO’S eastward expansion was necessary is highly debatable, and an argument can be made for NATO’s dissolution as well as it served its purpose. American troops are now stationed in Poland and Romania, among other countries. Throughout the world, it is almost impossible for the average citizen to even dream where American troops are stationed and why. Everything in the world, every hot spot now seems to be the responsibility of the United States, the “indispensable nation” as Madeline Albright called it. Americans are in Syria-doing what only our great Commander-in-Chief may know. Americans are in the Philippines, ostensibly as advisers, as in South Vietnam sixty plus years ago. We all know how that ended. Where else? Who Knows? The news media reported yesterday that drones of unknown origin hit residential neighborhoods in Moscow. Social imperialist Russia has been brutally attacking civilian targets in Ukraine for over a year, committing heinous war crimes on a daily basis. The US response to the drone attack on Moscow? We don’t support attacks on Russian territory. We have supplied about 40 billion dollars in aid to Ukraine but only in the form of defensive weapons, and with strict instructions not to enter Russian territory. So, what can we conclude? Ukraine’s suffering will continue. Of course, Ukraine is not a NATO member, but what if Russian rockets land in Poland. What then? An earlier post on this blog predicted that social imperialist Russia’s ultimate goal is to establish territorial contiguity with Kaliningrad oblast. Lithuania and Poland, be alert. You may be next.
The second leg of liberal hegemony is Free Trade. One doesn’t have to be an economist to see what free trade has done to America. Industry after industry has become a shadow of itself. Covid has demonstrated brutally the fragility of dependence on foreign supply chains. American productivity is no longer based in America. Everything from refrigerators, to clothing to solar panels to whatever you want to buy is made elsewhere. Pharmaceuticals are made in the PRC. Assault weapons are imported as the Federal government is powerless to prevent their importation as we are told we are violating World Trade Organization rules. Fentanyl is the leading cause of death of young Americans today. It is produced in bulk in the PRC, shipped to Mexico where it is compounded and then smuggled across the open southern border of the US. So much for free trade. On the other hand, our so-called trading partners have found innumerable methods to “legally” block American products from penetrating their markets. Industrial espionage is rampant as is forced technology transfer which the US government abets in the name of helping other countries.
Finally, the last leg of liberal hegemony is International Organizations. The leading example of this is the farce on the East River known as the United Nations. It is no more effective than the League of Nations was. Yes, the UN is very alert to actions by unpopular nations. Real estate policies of the Israeli government can cause emergency meetings of the UN Security Council, particularly at nights and on weekends. But the presence on television of daily war crimes by a charter member of that farce, namely Russia, is undiscussed and unpunished. The Organization of the Islamic Conference is large and powerful. The European Union is too. For them, it’s business as usual. No one will condemn Russia, no one will condemn the PRC’s genocide against their Muslim minority in Sinkiang. The UN, in its current form is less than worthless. It must go. There are numerous other international organizations that the US is involved with from G-7 to G-20 to all sorts of specialized groups. What they accomplish is debatable, but their infringement on American sovereignty is unquestionable.
I have tried to demonstrate in this article that American foreign policy, since Bill Clinton took office, is in a state of terminal decline which must be arrested and reversed. Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump and now Biden have all failed. This failure is not only in foreign affairs but domestic as well. A post about that will appear shortly. Meanwhile, America, it’s time to evaluate dispassionately where we are and where we are going. The clock is ticking. Putin and Xi are not waiting. Civilization may be hanging in the balance. Maybe it was a miracle of sorts that the Axis powers were defeated In WWII. Current events are eerily reminiscent of the 1930s. The world cannot afford a repeat of such a cataclysm. Don’t rely on miracles!
Garry S. Sklar
Las Vegas, NV
May 30, 2023
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