American Empire: This is How It Ends

On July 15th, 2008, I wrote an article entitled “The Dimensions of the American Economic Crisis, from the Beginning of the Mortgage Crisis”, in which I focused on the truth behind the complete fall of American power. I asked Arab intellectuals to stop repeating lies (such as sole American control over the world), and I mentioned that the complete civilizational collapse of America is not only in the economic realm, and that a series of articles would be required to explain it. In the previous article I focused on the economic dimensions, and quickly recounted events to show how the American economy and its crisis affects the whole world. The economy is the cornerstone – for every great power has built its strength using the economy as a general base. A flourishing economy lays the foundation for spending on war, and supports the spreading of control over new horizons, beyond the local marketplace, which becomes increasingly constrictive as national economic potential expands hugely.

When economic disrepair strikes a great power, then the basis of the colonial infrastructure of control cracks and finally collapses. The crisis is postponed for years or decades if the great power uses the military might it has acquired during its time of strength to hold off the march of time in a desperate attempt to maintain its control. It also exploits its accumulated prestige to bully others as it has in the near past, and by these two methods, the great power preserves its advantages and fends off deterioration, for awhile.

That is exactly what the United States has done. As I have stated, the graph of American power has been falling since the Second World War (which represented the peak of its power). This, despite the fact that it maintained a respectable position until the 1960s, during its rivalry with the Soviet Union.

The surprising fall of the Soviet Union was like a smoke bomb that obscured all vision. The Americans, and many others, thought that American power was on a long and certain rise. That is what I refuted (in numerous articles in the Egyptian newspaper Al Shaab during the nineties). Even many serious studies in the United States refuted it.

In 2003, the United States appeared isolated from the entire world while it prepared for its invasion of Iraq, so that it was forced to get support from some of the dwarf countries in Europe (such as Denmark) which they named the New Europe. I remember I wrote an article at that time which appeared to have a strange title (The American Calf has Fallen, so Break out the Knives). Perhaps this title might have seemed premature, but in historical terms, five years aren’t anything for one generation, and in the year 2008 it appears that the title is both understood and logical.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the signs of the American fall were clear to every serious observer and every perceptive eye. It was clear to the American ruling and intellectual elite. Perhaps this realization was the most important factor in the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the call for a return to traditional colonialism under the banner of democracy or any other empty pretext, such as the existence of Weapons of Mass Destruction or terrorism.

America’s awesome military machinery, whose advanced weapons were accumulated during the period of its strength, was put into motion to confirm its hegemony over the world and to push back the clock. The invasion of Iraq looked like suicide, because the war machine is not enough to cover the nakedness of civilizational decline. One of its most important manifestations is the American soldier’s and citizen’s losing the motivation for war and self-sacrifice, while machines don’t fight by themselves. Despite this civilizational decline, Zionist Americans and Israelis pushed for the use of technology in a way that gradually reduces the direct role of the war fighter. We learned of pilotless aircraft and robots to deal with explosives. We read of research to manufacture weapons designed to fight without humans, directed by humans using remote control.

Their insanity reached the point where they believed that they could enter a war without losing a single soldier. They tried to propagandize this hoax dressed in science and technology: the lopsided 1991 war against Iraq had no casualties to speak of in the American camp because there was very little direct fighting.

But that war didn’t decide anything, and set the stage for the 2003 war. There is still a vagueness surrounding the causes of what has been called Gulf-War Sickness, which has stricken tens of thousands of American soldiers, even when the reason was the use of depleted uranium munitions. That confirms that a war in which no one dies is not only a big fantasy, but it is a sign of civilizational weakness. Every great power, while it is on the rise, pays no attention to its human losses as long as its plans are advancing. The relatively quick fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan supported by the forces of the Northern Alliance and fierce American air strikes, with no American losses to mention, led to the popularization of the idea of victory in wars without casualties, and to the idea of using a small army outfitted with high technology. (The disgraced American defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld wrote a study along these lines after the fall of Kabul.)

I don’t deny that armed force slows the decline of a great power. It is wise to brandish force to the utmost without using it, in other words, to use the second element, which is awe and respect. It is the most important element in all stages, especially in the downfall stage. For the great power – even while it is in the vigor of youth – that uses force daily and against every country quickly depletes itself. It opens new fronts and alliances against itself. It loses its claimed moral credibility (such as the idea of spreading peace, which every colonial power repeats). Consequently, the method of making threats and promises and the brandishing of force without using it is a more effective method. This is applied in a greater manner when the great power is in the stage of downfall, for it increases the use of awe and respect to achieve its objectives, and brandishes force to the utmost without using it, and uses nonmilitary means as necessary to apply pressure to a rival. (America’s policy towards Iraq from 1992 to 2003 is a prime example of what we speak.)

The invasion of Iraq – after Afghanistan – was in the framework of a plan to use military force to achieve strategic, economic, and political gains. Its purpose was to block the way to increasing competition from other world powers, especially Russia, China, Europe, the Asian Tigers, and the rise of Islam. That would be by achieving hegemony over the prime oil reserve in the world. The result was that the United States’ teeth were knocked out and it lost its awe and respect. It became the talk of the world in addition to increasing feelings of hate towards from all four corners of the earth. The mere mention of the American army used to cause fear, but now it causes contempt and motivates resistance movements everywhere. America has been dealt a defeat in Iraq even if it withdraws. Despite all the confusion, division, and strife in Iraqi society, the greatest loser is the American aggressor because it simply did not achieve one of its announced or secret objectives for the war. Today the defeat in Afghanistan is not considered a secret. Karzai has requested Saudi mediation with the Taliban, America consents to that, and the leader of American forces in Afghanistan speaks of the many difficulties on the military field.

Now Russia does as it pleases in Georgia, and George Bush can only issue communiqués of condemnation (in the manner of rulers). Communiqués of condemnation are issued! The Pakistani army opens fire on American planes and actually downs a spy plane despite the Pakistani regime’s still being a friend of the United States! And America issues communiqués of condemnation! Somalia was one of the most important targeted points in the American military strategy after September 11th, as it was considered one of Al Qaeda’s headquarters, and the Ethiopian aggression upon Somalia happened in agreement with America, and with American air cover. This came to strafing by air a number of times, but what was the result? The Somali resistance returned to liberate the Somali cities and regions, and piracy along the Somali coast has become more powerful than the great American force in this region.

Threatening a military strike on the Iranian project has become almost passé, and the Arabs should learn, whatever their opinion of Iranian politics, how Iran turned its crises around, and how it came to possess military force that the United States hesitates to provoke. In the American strategy, a strong Iran is not desirable, but it now exists in spite of America.

After the invasion of Iraq, Syria was a candidate to be the next country. American officials openly stated that. Now America can only seek to conciliate Syria. The story of the Hariri trial appears to have entered the gloom of oblivion along with the policy of punishing Syria.

We mention that the American puppet, Tony Blair when he was the Prime Minister of Great Britain, stated that he was preparing to send four thousand soldiers to Darfur. Now, despite the many difficulties that Sudan faces because of its internal make-up, it confidently rejects American threats to try President Bashir, and he moves and travels as he pleases in the continent of Africa.

America issues communiqués of rejection and condemnation.

Getting rid of Hamas and the Palestinian resistance was at the top of the agenda and among the top American priorities in the Region. Despite the difficulties Gaza suffers from, the goal of getting rid of Hamas and its government and the Palestinian resistance is not within the American grasp, even though they have had the collusion of most Arab rulers.

The Lebanese Resistance was written off as finished, and changing Lebanon to an American military base was a done deal. The result is that the Zionist army lost its awe and respect.

Turkey, despite not being in a state of confrontation with the United States, retained its independent policy on a number of issues in the region. America lost Musharraf, and is on the edge of losing Pakistan, instead of using it to finish off the Afghan resistance. It is on the edge of losing Bangladesh. Even the Kingdom of Nepal has come to be governed by Maoists! We have seen how Malaysia acted independently during the Asian financial crisis and how it rejected the American plan, which was the plan of the International Monetary Fund, and how quickly it recovered economically. Lastly, the American embassy in Yemen was struck after years of American intelligence work in cooperation with the Yemeni authorities against the Al Qaeda organization.

American cooperation with India is a kind of forced recognition of a rising great power. It is not, as some think, an alliance against China, because China is not concerned with reviving border problems with India. Just the opposite, it wants Chinese-Indian economic cooperation to rise.

Russia finally regained its vitality. The Georgia crisis, in itself important, was nothing more than the announcing of a new phase in the cold war. In it, Russia’s catchphrase will be regaining the land and the influence it lost since 1991 until now. Here the importance of the Shanghai Alliance comes in. It is an alliance that includes the countries of central Asia that have rebelled against Russia, and China. This alliance presents itself as the axis of an international bloc against the United States. As for Latin America, what has happened without hesitation is that the whole continent has fled the hand of American hegemony, even if they have behaved as semi-colonies on the run from Washington. But now American ambassadors are expelled from the continent in droves, and she can only do what small countries do: she responds in kind by expelling Latin Ambassadors!

Then came the current financial meltdown, which led to the loss of one and a quarter trillion dollars from the American stock market in a single day. Congress’ agreement with Bush’s bailout plan doesn’t mean solving the problem, because it is like a tranquilizer which treats the symptoms of the disease without treating the true causes. Without entering into complicated economic analysis, it can be simply stated that the American economy suffers from the disease of consuming more than it produces, and consumes more basic resources than it acquires, on three levels: government, corporation, and individual. That is what leads to an ever-widening gap which is closed only by acquiring debt, and printing additional dollars, again leading to disequilibrium and increasing the gulf between receipts and expenditures. Society continues to spin deeper and faster to the bottom of the whirlpool. The true solution might be belt-tightening, reducing consumption and general spending, and increasing production. That is something a society that is used to luxurious consumption cannot do, especially when such consumption was almost their only goal in life.

This is God’s law for His creation, and this is how the torch of civilization gets passed from nation to nation. For the nation that is in control for a period gets used to a certain level of luxury and then cannot do without it. It rejects making real sacrifices of any kind, either in the field of consumption or in the field of war. Consequently, it gradually loses its place to another nation or group of nations.

We don’t say that America has actually fallen or ended, but in the year 2008 we say with surety that America has dropped a huge rung on the ladder, and that the world is now witnessing a true and firmly established diversity.

We don’t see the possibility of America falling all at once like the Soviet Union. For America is a fortress surrounded by oceans, it has a strong central regime, and at the current time there is no separatist inclination inside the society despite the racial diversity. We do expect a continuing decrease in American power and a reduction of its proportional weight on the international balance, and at a quickening pace. It will become just another influential country, and its defeat in our strategic oil region will hasten its fall, because the American hegemony over most of the Arab countries is the most important remaining outward sign of its control over the world.