It may not have been the beginning of the betrayal of the American empire’s promises to bring the “blessings” of American democracy to everyone on earth, but technological advances in media greatly expanded the opportunities for people everywhere to see what these “blessings” really amount to. In most cases chaos and upheaval and a total destruction of people’s lives and livelihoods.
August, 1968 proved to be the first eye-opener for millions of people around the world parked in front of their TV sets as crowds of mostly young people gathered outside the site of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois venting their frustration and rage about a war that only the military industrial complex and their supporters could love (including at the outset most of Congress and President Johnson). The draft age men in the crowd knew the stakes were high. “War is young men dying and old men talking.” [attributed to President Franklin Roosevelt]. As they were marching, the Chicago Police, clad in riot gear, some on horseback attacked them. Media coverage made sure the whole world saw that the grand American experiment of peace, fraternity and democracy was imploding in front of their eyes.
U.S. leaders, along with most of the worlds people, have known for over half a century what happens after the U.S. has finished doling out its peculiarly horrific “blessings” on the countries it targets. The destruction of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos was an American—led genocide. They did it again in 1999 wiping Yugoslavia off the map.
Was the world watching? Hard not to. But sixty years ago, even twenty-five years ago, the U.S. was the most powerful country on earth, the sole hegemon in a unipolar world. People shrugged their collective shoulders and moved on.
That changed as the American empire took a dive off its pedestal. As the 21st century dawned, the decline of the American empire and its dreams of ruling the world began crumbling. In 2001 and 2003, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ended with the U.S. making a beeline for the exits, in 2008 an economic collapse, in 2011 the U.S. led-destruction of Libya and murder of its leader (which even then-President Obama described as a “shit show”).
As the world watched in “shock and awe,” the U.S. continued its rampage. “In 2014 the US backed an uprising…against the legitimately elected Ukrainian government…[The New York Times 5/31/2022]
The chickens came home to roost in this latest example of U.S. meddling in another nation’s affairs. In 2022 Russia launched its “special military operation” against Ukraine with the U.S in Ukraine’s corner providing money ($183 billion) weapons and intelligence. Then-President Biden promised to turn “the ruble into rubble” with sanctions while his CIA buddies blew up the Nord Stream pipeline. Another war it couldn’t win. A different kind of war as Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared —“And frankly it’s a proxy war between nuclear powers, the United States helping Ukraine and Russia.”
Was the world watching? It’s hard to believe it wasn’t. Particularly Germans, whose home energy bills skyrocketed and industries withered as it made do without cheap Russian gas. Instead Germany was forced to depend on American suppliers at a 50% markup.
What else does a dying empire do? Wage economic war against what it perceives as its adversaries. In this case, the entire world. Currently 2.6 billion people (one-third of the world’s population) are under U.S. sanctions. Even The Washington Post usually in lock step with Washinton’s political leaders cried foul — “[In 2024, the United States imposed] three times as many sanctions as any other country…targeting a third of all nations with some kind of financial penalty on people, properties or organizations.” [“How 4 U.S. Presidents Unleashed Economic Warfare Across the Globe” The Washington Post]
It’s a sure bet people in the affected countries were watching.
After 20 months the world has finally woken up to decry the barbarity of the Israelis as they conduct a genocide in Gaza with their U.S. BFF’s. Together they have caused the deaths of at least 54,000 Palestinians, one-third of them children. With the latest 2-1/2-month blockade of Gaza and the resumption of bombing raids, starvation stalks the land and that total is bound to rise.
It may have taken too long but the world’s spot light is trained on the carnage. As the U.S. clings to Israel, becoming the only nation in the United Nations Security Council to vote against a cease fire resolution, thus killing it, the rest of the world has seen enough and moves away.
No longer the world’s cop, diplomatically isolated, the U.S. has seen its power diminished, its moral standing corrupted and its ability to shape the world according to its own inclinations gone. Burdened with debt, haunted by memories of faded glory, like all declining empires, it turns to its trillion-dollar military for a resurgence. Ask the Afghans, the Iraqis, the Somalis, the Libyans, the Houthis how well that worked out.
“The military-industrial complex has become so powerful…that it dominates the government…We [the U.S.] would spend millions of dollars arming…the corrupt dictators… of this world with weapons they could turn against their own people because such rulers were safe, they were anti-communist and that was the only political gauge that mattered. [Fred J. Cook & Bertrand Russell, The Warfare State, 1962)
It was true six decades ago and it’s true today. The world is indeed watching and America grows more isolated every day. Will it wake up in time?
