Eric Zuesse
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Why the U.S. is increasingly unfit for world leadership
Note: The very title reeks of Western hierarchic values, something the world does NOT need. The community of nations can well exist—in fact thrive— without any "leader" in its midst. The idea of universally needed "leaders" derives from the primitive—ancient/feudal past, inherited and warmly embraced by the bourgeois since it fit their idea of life in a jungle of perpetual competition. That's why all capitalist corporations are vertical tyrannies.—PG
The desire of the US to dominate and its refusal to see other countries as equals, willing and able to assume equal responsibility for peace and stability, is the short answer to the question of why Moscow-Washington relations cannot get out of the current state of crisis. This attitude also leads the US to the same difficulties in its relations with China, India and even some of its own allies, such as Turkey.
The Russian and Chinese position is buttressed by the principle that peace is the result of compromise between the major centers of power, and that without their mutual agreement – without equality, mutual respect, a willingness to recognize each other’s interests, and adherence to the principle of non-interference in internal affairs – a stable order is impossible. The US believes, however, that peace is a deterministic given, and that no special effort is needed to maintain it. This leads to paradoxical solutions: the more weapons, the more peace. The West is not yet ready to become just one of the Atlanteans holding up the sky. It still believes it should be in charge. ...
All of that is correct, and the reason why it is, is that ever since George W. Bush became America’s President in 2001, the U.S. Government has been ruled not only by neoconservative (i.e., pro-U.S.-imperialistic) Presidents, but by U.S. Congresses whose seats have been filled more than 95% by fellow-neoconservatives; and, as a consequence, America now spends more than $1.5 trillion each year on its military (half of which is funded outside of the U.S. Defense Deprtment so as to fool the world to think that it’s instead only around $900 billion per year), while its federal Government’s debt has risen by $5 trillion in the past four years, which is only $1.25T per year, which is only 83% as much as the nation’s annual military expenses are, which means that all other expenses by the U.S. federal Government will inevitably soon be reduced each year by around $250 billion per year. Those non-military annual expenses constitute $5T ($6.5T minus $1.5T), so that from now on, the non-military part will be reduced by 5% ($.25T/$5T) each year, or else the growth in the federal debt will be $1.5T per year instead of $1.25T per year, or else the current $1.5T U.S. annual spending on its military will be cut down to $1.25T per year, which would mean that the very top priority of the almost 100% neoconservative U.S. Government, which is its military spending, will have to become annually reduced at least by 5%, by that almost 100% neoconservative Government, which won’t happen unless there is a Second American Revolution, which replaces all of these officials by Government officials who will be like what professor Shushentsov says will be needed in order to prevent yet further build-up to a WW3 global nuclear annihilation.
Alternatively: the growth in the federal debt will no longer be $1.25T annually, but instead $1.5T annually; but, if that happens, then global investors will disinvest in U.S. industries, which will also mean that the billionaires who control the U.S. elected officials by means of their political donations, lobbyists, news-media, think tanks, etc., will see their net worths decline because foreign investors will be withdrawing. So, that path forward will be even less acceptable to them than the other paths will be.
Perhaps the neoconservatives will say that this is Russian propaganda, or Chinese propaganda, or Iranian propaganda, or by some other country that neoconservatives hope to conquer, but they won’t be able to contest any of this by the numbers, because all of these numbers come from the U.S. Government itself. The actual propagandists are the neocons themselves, and they are funded by U.S. billionaires, who have been profiting from all of this. By contrast, nobody has paid me anything in order to research and write this. I always write only what the data display. In the case of my own country, the U.S., what the data display is why the U.S. is increasingly unfit for world leadership. The neoconservatives (including all U.S.-and-allied billionaires) are that reason why. They, themselves, are the reason. And they have enough money to be able to destroy America — and maybe the world.
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- The way US officials keep falsely asserting that Israel has accepted a peace deal and Hamas is the only party rejecting it reminds me of that time they kept insisting that the real president of Venezuela was some random guy—Juan Guaido—they chose for the position.
- They’re just trying to impose a narrative which has no factual basis whatsoever by rote repetition and sheer media power.—Caitlin Johnstone.
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ALL CAPTIONS AND PULL QUOTES BY THE EDITORS NOT THE AUTHORS
The insane US neocons are only a small group bent on destruction. What really governs America is the hard-nosed, steely-eyed bourgeoisie who are in charge and form the largest human block in US society. One only has to hear the many ‘experts’ constantly asked for commentary on cable television (from where most of the US’ public obtains its information) to get a whiff of their arrogant aggression. What they sell is xenophobia and racism, fear and exceptionalism. The bourgeois carapace of exclusion and profiteering has been nurtured since 1776 when the elites decided that a federal system was required to… Read more »
Putin visited Xi in Beijing in May and they issued a joint communique, a scarcely disguised message from China and Russia to the hegemonic self-proclaimed exceptional indispensibles, saying:
1. We are ready for all the dirty tricks, sabotage and warfare you are conducting against us. Do your worst, you goddamn motherf*ckers.
2.You are irrelevant to our futures. We, together with the Global Majority, are comprehensively building a better world with BRICS, even as you and your quisling goons perpetrate genocide, even as you crooks collapse from the fraud of your Ponzi deindustrialised economies.
3.F*ck your fools based disorder