Rotting Empire vs. Inept Enemy

[SWJED]

7 May The Australian commentary - Rotting Empire vs. Inept Enemy by Matthew Parris.

Writing in The Spectator three weeks ago, David Selbourne - the distinguished essayist, author and thinker - had sniffed the wind and concluded that it is all up for what he calls the US imperium. Islam has been Washington's undoing, he believes, and after six short decades as top dog of the world, America is already stumbling and set to lose its predominance.

It's a fascinating thesis. Selbourne is right about one thing. The American empire has passed its zenith. More disputable is his implicit suggestion that the US and the world are heading for some kind of nemesis. And he is mistaken, I reckon, to conclude that Islam will prove that nemesis...

[Granite_State]

Interesting article, thanks. I agree with him that the nihilism of Al Qaeda-style Islamism offers no real future to its adherents.

[TROUFION]

"The American empire has passed its zenith."

This statement has a whole lot of issues associated with it. Anyone care to examine it?

[goesh]

- traverse the heartland, hundreds upon hundreds of miles from north to south, east to west of rich food producing land where one man using modern equipment can feed thousands - we have not reached our zenith of power and influence, not by a long shot

[Firestaller]

'Globalization,' technology and China would be the end of "US Imperialism" ... not Islamic terrorists.


Resource-rich developing countries has found a peer trading partner in China that could stand on equal ground with (more or less) and less dependent on the US; technology expanded knowledge-based job market for any country; 'globalization' allows goods and services to be more easily traded in a market of 6.6 trillion people.

[Rob Thornton]

Didn't China just execute its former head of their version of the FDA. They may have the buying power in a year 2000 economy, may have the Olympics, may be spending like crazy on their military, but they have a 1950s style government, and have modernized so fast they are bound to have growing pains they have not begun to contemplate. Which I think is what makes them dangerous - ever see ole Bruce Banner turn into the Hulk - not the grey smart one, but the emotional green one?

I'd have to agree with Goesh, there is vast unrealized potential in the United States, and I think we have a better sense of ourselves then any other state with like potential. We live in a truly amazing country where hope and possibility abound.