The history of the world is replete with numerous examples of great civilisations rising to the peak of their glory, then declining and finally resting on the dust heap of history to become forgotten chapters of the human story. The Greek Empire, the Roman Empire, the Persian Empire, and lately the British Empire, of which it was said the sun never sets on the British Empire, but today it has been squeezed to its tiny British Isles, only a spectre of its former greatness and glory. During the last five centuries, no country has matched the rapid rise of the USA, starting from scratch as a former colony of Britain and navigating its way to be the biggest and greatest superpower in the world. After independence in 1776, it rose to be a regional power by the 20th century and established its position as a global superpower after the victory over Germany and Japan in 1945.
More than two and a half centuries after independence, the USA in the 21st century is fast declining. The war in Ukraine and the Israeli behaviour today, like the attack on Qatar, a close ally of the US, clearly show that America is fast losing its grip on world affairs. The decline of the American civilisation is real and happening now. The US is diminishing in power on a relative basis, geopolitically, militarily, financially, economically, and technologically. It can also refer to absolute declines demographically, socially, morally, spiritually, culturally, in matters of healthcare, and/or on environmental issues. There has been debate over the extent of the decline and whether it is relative or absolute. The moral, institutional, political, and economic degeneration of the US, and the berserk aggression of Israel have finally destroyed the credibility of the US as a force for regional and international stability.
The US is still the global leader in military power, technology, and economy, but it is just hanging in there by the skin of its teeth and losing its grip on global affairs at a fast pace. The growing economic and military might of China and Russia is casting a long shadow on the might and world dominance of the USA. The European Union and countries like Australia, long-standing American allies and friends, cannot go along for long with the USA to prevent the creeping threat from Moscow and Beijing. The recently concluded SCO summit conference in China left a very clear impression that American dominance is now coming to an end, and the world will soon see the emergence of a new power in global affairs.
The United States carried out one of the greatest strategic blunders in its history, one that sounded the death knell of the empire, when it invaded and occupied, for two decades, Afghanistan and Iraq. The masterminds and planners of these wars, including their cheering supporters in the electronic and print media, knew absolutely nothing about the countries being invaded or the horrible consequences for the US. They were power-drunk and, in sheer arrogance, believed just in their technological superiority and had no idea of the stiff resistance they would face, and finally faced an inglorious defeat, just as the shameful defeat in Vietnam many decades earlier.
America, after their grand victory in World War II, has now become something of a garrison state, with a civilian government dominated by the military
The American leadership of George Bush believed that Saddam Hussein had amassed weapons of mass destruction, when there was no evidence to support this claim that the US government wanted the world to believe. They believed that they would bring democracy to Iraq and then the entire Middle East, and that American troops would be welcomed by a rejoicing local population who were sick and tired of brutal dictatorship. The American military planners and strategists banked on a quick military attack to restore American dominance by the use of shock-and-awe tactics. It did the opposite. As Zbigniew Brzeziński noted, this “unilateral war of choice against Iraq precipitated a widespread delegitimation of U.S. foreign policy.
America, after their grand victory in World War II, has now become something of a garrison state, with a civilian government dominated by the military. They are constantly preparing for war, and their mushrooming defence budget is a sacred cow that nobody dares to question, the utter waste of billions of dollars in many military adventures abroad. Its military fiascos in Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East disappear into the vast black hole of historical amnesia. This amnesia, which means there is never accountability, licenses the war machine to leap from military debacle to debacle while it economically disembowels the country. Since the end of the Second World War, the federal government has spent more than half its tax dollars on past, current, and future military operations. It is the largest single sustaining activity of the government.
Foreign aid is contingent on buying US weapons. Egypt, which receives some $1.3 billion in foreign military financing, is required to devote it to buying and maintaining U.S. weapons systems. Israel, meanwhile, has received $158 billion in bilateral assistance from the US since 1949, almost all of it since 1971 in the form of military aid, with most of it going towards arms purchases from American weapons manufacturers. In the year to September 2022, the US spent $877 billion on the military. This was more than the next ten countries, including China, Russia, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, combined.
These huge military expenditures, along with the rising costs of a for-profit healthcare system, have driven the US national debt to over $31 trillion, nearly $5 trillion more than the US’s entire Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This imbalance is not sustainable, especially once the dollar is no longer the world’s reserve currency. As of January 2023, the US spent a record $213 billion servicing the interest on its national debt. The mantra of the militarised state is national security. If every discussion begins with a question of national security, every answer includes force or the threat of force. The preoccupation with internal and external threats divides the world into friend and foe, good and evil.