Tuesday, December 9, 2008

What goes up must come down.


“US global dominance 'set to wane'” an article in the BBC news declares “US economic, military and political dominance is likely to decline over the next two decades, according to a new US intelligence report on global trends.” The article highlights the results of National Intelligence Council (NIC) report that “predicts China, India and Russia will increasingly challenge US influence. It also says the dollar may no longer be the world's major currency, and food and water shortages will fuel conflict.” When I read this I was reminded instantly of excerpts of a book I read for an old world history class "The Decline of the Roman Empire". This comparison is hardly an original thought. An article by Niki Collins-Queen “America’s Decline as a Superpower” she describes best the comparison of Edwards Gibbons "The Decline of the Roman Empire" to the present state of the Unites States. Gibbons lists off the causes of Rome’s decline “It could be a description of America today. He said Rome declined as it had a bloated and overextended military, widespread economic and political corruption, public apathy, hedonism and addiction to and dependence on foreign resources.” Don’t write me of as fascist American eulogizer quite yet. It’s not all doom and gloom. In an article by AMOTZ ASA-EL titled “Barack Obama and the decline of America” the author suggests there is still hope and it’s audacious. “The world still rotates around an axis made of American inventions, from the airplane, the motorcar and the computer to the motion picture, the skyscraper and spaceship. There is no sign for now of a Russian, Indian, Japanese or Chinese Alexander Graham Bell, Orville Wright, Bill Gates or Steve Jobs.” Its many vices and inequities aside “America has just tapped into deep social aquifers in a way that none of its rivals will do any time soon. China distances its masses from civic leadership, Russia abandons millions to the devices of organized crime, Brazil has even more millions teeming in favelas, India still has pariahs who can only dream of American blacks' acceptance, and Europe keeps at arm's length vast immigrant populations. America, with all its problems, is socially healthier than all of them.” If the prospect of Obama isn’t hope enough then maybe the conclusion of the initial BCC article about the NIC report will leave you with some comfort as the correspondent concludes, “it is worth noting that US intelligence has been wrong before.

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