World Revolts Against the Empire Gone Wild - “The United States of weakness” My Ass! It’s Called Reality – Deal With It

By Eric Dubin: A great many in the media are parroting the meme that the United States and the Obama Administration has shown a lack of resolve when it comes to the question of Syria.  As a prime example, Politico leads today with the silly headline, “The United States of weakness.”
Obama 'the baby butcher' has acted like a lawyer and public relations specialist rather than a true leader.  Duh…  As if that should be a surprise?
Six days ago, in the context of the propaganda campaign to justify a military strike against Syria, I wrote:  “America, demand your leaders act like statesmen, not cheap PR lawyer hacks.  Wake up!  Endless ‘framing’ and lies must stop.“  Guess what?  That is exactly what happened, and Obama is merely responding to the will of the people and other political dynamics.  Let’s dive into those other political dynamics and then return to examine what really is going on with the will of the people, shall we?

First of all, I need to point out that early on Monday, I wrote:
“Rumor has it that Congress may vote on a Syria strike resolution as early as Wednesday.  Our call:  there are significant odds the vote will be delayed.”
Yesterday, in a subsequent essay I described the concept of “moral authority” as a source of geostrategic power.  Consider this prophetic comment, in particular:
“It’s pathetic that the world must look toward  seasoned diplomat Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for an example of (at least in this case) true statesman leadership and moral authority.  Lavrov proposed that the Syrian government put its chemical weapons arsenal under international control for subsequent destruction.  If American “leaders” were truly motivated to reduce the use of chemical weapons, pursuing Lavrov’s idea would be worth at least a two week experiment in diplomacy.”
Only hours after writing those words, the Obama Administration started signaling it will consider Lavrov’s proposal.  I’m not psychic!  I do, however, have formal training in International Relations that informs a deeper understanding of the wellsprings of geostrategic power than apparently the authors of the above cited Politico article.
For a number of decades, “moral authority” served as the bedrock for American geopolitical might.  True, the US represented about half of global economic output at the close of World War II.  Similarly, the US enjoyed absolute military dominance in the immediate years following the end of WWII.  But make no mistake, “moral authority” was just as important in America’s rise to greatness.  American foreign policy leaders consciously propagated the meme of America as the “exceptional” nation, with “moral authority” that stood against former European colonial powers — and certainly, against the “godless communists.”
As with many things in life, the reality of America versus the vision of “moral authority” was fraught with contradictions.  A crystal clear example can be seen with American policy towards Iran under the the leadership of nationalist Mohammad Mosaddegh.  Mosaddegh embraced the US Deceleration of Independence on Iranian national television.  He praised Thomas Jefferson and America’s founding fathers.  But Mosaddegh also nationalized Iran’s oil industry and kicked the West out.  He crossed more than just a “red line”! America sent Kermit Roosevelt, grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt, on a black-op mission to foment civil strife and riots that ultimately led to Mosaddegh’s overthrow.
What’s happening today on the international front is that America’s turn towards a police state and “unilateralist” on the international stage is catching up with our nation.  How can a nation claim “moral authority” when it consistently violates the spirit and letter of international law and launches wars like some Hollywood studio cranking out B Movies?
Toss on economic dynamics.  The empire’s finances reek.  If true, Generally Accepted Accounting Principles were employed to calculate the annual Federal deficit, the figure would be north of six trillion.  Add to this fact the long-term picture.  The net present value of unfunded entitlement programs is hotly debated, and small changes in assumptions can result in large differences in estimates.  Nevertheless the figures are shocking regardless how conservative one is with assumptions.  Boston University economics professor Laurence Kotlikoff has consistently offered high-side estimates, but even the more tame assumptions used by James Hamilton result in a figure of $70+ trillion, more than four times America’s national output (click here for more info).
Certainly, America is asset-rich, and these problems are perhaps addressable with true leadership on deck.  But the fact remains, just as Rome, the American empire is over-stretched, and the exorbitant privilege that comes with controlling the world’s primary reserve and trade settlement currency is under direct assault.  The formal agenda for last week’s G-20 meeting addressed this very subject, and the days of the dollar’s “exorbitant privilege” are numbered.
When the Soviet Union collapsed and the policy establishment started pondering silly constructs like Francis Fukuyama’s “End of History,” the stage was set for the rise of the Neocons and their overt embrace of empire building, with next to no appreciation for “moral authority.”  What we have witnessed this week is nothing less than a major shift away from the neocon worldview, as the neocon doctrine is transitioning into the trashcan of history.  Object reality of America’s declining relative power is the proximate cause, and in the short-term there isn’t a damn thing anyone can do about it.  Long-term?  That’s a different issue and way beyond the scope of this essay.
Meanwhile, on the domestic front, there is a massive shift brewing.  A major percentage of the American people are sick and tired of being fleeced by government gone wild.  The Millennial generation, in particular, are going to have a few choice words with the Baby Boomers on the question of entitlement programs.  You can’t see this shift within mainstream media reportage, and certainly there’s a major percentage of the population that has indeed adopted a strategy of tending to day-to-day life in the hopes of not being the nail that sticks out that gets hammered down.  But make no mistake, Ron Paul’s “Campaign For Liberty” is a perfect example of a rising tide of millions of Americans that have simply had enough.  The movement is demanding a return to the principals that made this nation great, sound economics, sound money, a return to real capitalism and not crony capitalism and the feeding of a parasitic finance oligarchy that has metastasized into a cancer partially responsible for the eventual loss of the U.S. dollar’s exorbitant privilege.
What the folks at Politico and so many other arm-chair analysts fail to see coming are two-fold:  Internationally, the days of the American unilateralist empire are over;  domestically, the liberty movement is going to explode on to the center stage of American politics as a direct response to the powers that be clinging to the existing, broken order.
Ironically enough, when Obama ran for president, his campaign platform spoke directly to many of the principles of this nascent liberty movement – an end to empire building, bringing the troops home, closing Guantanamo Bay (remember, concern for the damage to “moral authority” was what policy makers considered material), becoming the most transparent president in history, a restoration of the rule of law and respect for the Bill of Rights, and on and on and on.  All of this was total bullshit, and anyone that simply looked at where Obama’s money came from (not to mention his fishy background) could see he was going to prove to be a puppet and turncoat.  But don’t miss the point.  His campaign platform spoke to where the nation’s heart has been moving.
Unpacking these dynamics in an essay is difficult without spilling much ink.  Many will find it easy to take these words out of context or simply construct sound arguments because I do not have the space here to fully expound and document.  So be it.  Perhaps I will return to this theme at a later date.
Bottom-line: what happened this week is not a sign of weakness.  It’s a sign America is coming to terms with reality.  We have a choice.  We can elect to be honest about what we have done to our economy, particularly with debt and insane financialization.   We can elect to have a sober relationship with the international community that guards our interests while jettisoning delusions of empire and it’s untenable financial burden.  We can elect to do away with the facilitated empowerment of radicalism that feeds the so-called war on terrorism and stop creating terrorists as a byproduct of our foreign policy.  We can elect to embrace sane economic liberalization without furthering crony capitalism, and the need for a domestic nascent police state to protect the powers that be.  We can elect to restore the rule of law and the Bill of Rights.  In fact, America can elect to restore transparency to our covert history, the hidden history of our CIA and shadow government and nascent police state in service of a restoration of “moral authority.”  America can elect to do all of this, over the coming decades and restore faith in our institutions and society.  Alternatively, we can slide down the path of all empires of old.
What say you, dear American?  The choice is yours.

Edited by WD

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