Joe Biden called upon Europeans to suggest their own ideas for policy changes in Afghanistan. Now the Europeans have to show that they have realistic suggestions that will result in a military victory there. Just going along with America’s policies isn’t enough.
Much has been said lately about America’s descent and the beginnings of a new multi-polar world order. The “strategic community,” those who most enjoy discussing such topics, appear to be skeptical about that. One had only to look at the Munich Security Conference to see how everything revolved around Joe Biden’s appearance and the suspense with which the world waited to see what America’s new security policy would look like, in order to understand that the lines of power in international politics still converge in Washington.
One of the most popular, meaningless statements heard in Munich was that no country (read: not even the United States) was capable of solving the world’s problems single-handedly. But when was that ever the case? Not once during the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the period of America’s greatest relative power, did Washington see itself in a position to solve international crises all alone. Instead, America put together a huge international coalition before going to war with Iraq in 1991 to liberate Kuwait.
America didn’t even want to go it alone in the 2003 Iraq war to topple Saddam Hussein, and managed to put together a small group of its closest allies before invading. What we may now expect from the new Obama administration is a return to the time of the first Iraq war; that the U.S. will invest a great deal of time and effort in persuading others, and not only in the West. We can expect that it will, because of those efforts, regain a strong role in assembling and leading great coalitions of countries to confront those problems to which the solutions are in everyone’s interest.
Barack Obama’s most important resource to that end is the wave of goodwill he currently enjoys. He would be well advised to make use of that before it begins to ebb. That’s why it was right for Joe Biden to not only emphasize America’s willingness to negotiate multilaterally, but also to make it clear that the U.S. expects more from its partners. The comfortable days when Europe’s leaders could sit back and use George Bush as an excuse are gone.
A former U.S. Ambassador to Germany made the somewhat scornful remark that all Biden did in Munich was pick out several sore spots like climate change and multilateralism and say the opposite of what George Bush had said. That may be true, but it’s only a half-truth. Biden also clarified why international institutions and American alliances are not ends in themselves and that their continued existence is dependent on their effectiveness. It’s not enough to pay lip service to them without also actively helping them succeed in their goals.
Obama is breathing new life into the trans-Atlantic alliance, but not even Obama can reinvent the world. The options for dealing with the many crises are limited because the appearance of a new president alone doesn’t solve anything. That’s why Obama’s offer of a hand toward Iran, brusquely rejected in Munich, can only succeed if Tehran is interested in making it succeed. If it doesn’t, the American president will turn up the sanctions against Iran and leave the military card on the table. And NATO will not get far in Afghanistan with the “coordinated security” favored by Angela Merkel unless the NATO partners are willing to increase spending and infrastructure repair efforts and to secure those with increased troop deployments to the uncontested areas of the country.
Obama’s election has made it possible for the West to begin discussing the best ideas. “The world has changed and we must change with it,” Obama said in his inaugural speech. That also goes for Europe. Europeans have developed a bad habit of simply reacting to everything the United States does. Washington makes a decision and Europe reacts accordingly. That’s not enough. Joe Biden emphatically invited Europe to come up with its own ideas for changing policies in Afghanistan. The competition of ideas has begun.
Now Europeans have to show they have realistic ideas for winning the war in Afghanistan and have to clarify what they’re willing to do to realize that goal.
there is no winning the war in afghanistan.
until the world figures that one out much wealth and lives will be spent there.
as far as america this is no recession or even a depression but a decline of wealth of a nation.
until the world figures that one out we will continue to borrow and borrow and print more money to keep our super ego super power status mega military presence intact.
much like england lost its super power status due to its imperialism america is doing the same.
there is no winning wars this is about wars for profits. if you have a mega military machine you must use it to keep it. simple as that.
ike warned the world what would happen if america tried to keep its war machine intact after world war II but no one in the world listened to him.
america is broke no bankrupt. get over it and smell the roses.
america tried to compete in the world market with cheap labor even kept her borders open to compete with little concern for the actual social cost of open borders. ie corp fascism.
america in the 21st century will move towards a third world status. imperialism has it price.
few will understand my words.
patroitism and nationalism can overwhelm the rational mind of a whole society.
germany of all countries should understand that axiom.
Two words: Jesus wept.
The United States is what it is because of where it is; it dominates the North American continent and sits astride the maritime trade routes between Asia and Atlantic Europe.
The United States is like other normal Athenian naval powers, such as Britain or Japan-it acts to prevent the rise of continental land powers (such as Germany, China, or Russia) that might pose an existential threat to its existence.
For about the next ten to fifteen years, the United States, as well as the rest of the West (and Coastal China and Japan, for that matter) will have to wring out the entire system of finance built on indebtedness that distorted international capitalism since the end of the Cold War.
Naturally, people who read too much Noam Chomsky think that this is the end of the United States. It’s not. It’s actually only the beginning. This will very much be an American Century.
“few will understand my words”
Primarily because there was so much wrong with your post that it begged understanding.
Wow I got a response. Finally.
Paradigm paralysis is very powerful as revealed here.
The Jesus wept comment is interesting. I am sure Jesus is interested in America’s economic decline or its generation of wealth success.
“This will be an American century” was an interesting comment. Reminds me of the Harley folks in the early sixties that stated Honda could only make small motorcycles and did not have the talent to make large motorcycles like Harleys. Yea that prediction based in nationalistic pride was valid.
I will stick with my words that few will understand my words and now I have living written proof of one who did not.
But in all fairness thank you for responding to my comments. You are living proof of why America is in decline. We are blinded by our arrogance and our belief that somehow we have some kind of god given right to be a super power nation. Every super power nation in history failed to see its decline in action. It is a national ego thing.
I suspect you are a bible carrying Christian and a neo con and I suspect you want more tax cuts and deregulation and I also suspect you are in love with the economic policies of Reagan that have destroyed the middle class in this country. Many of those middle class folks lined up to vote for Reagan. In a republic we get the leadership we elect. Ok I predicted this economic disaster the first year Reagan was president.
“Beginning with his opposition to the Vietnam War” Chomsky and I do have something in common as I also was against the vietnam war. We killed one million vietnamese and did not bat an eye. That war was illegal like the iraq war was and is illegal. Maybe jesus wept with those two wars.
My observation is that most americans cared less about how many vietnamese we killed or how many muslims we are killing in this newest wars for profits. (oil) Most americans did not know then or now who the viet cong were.
Wars for profits will bankrupt america. Ok wars for profits have aready bankrupted america morally and economically. We are living on borrowed time and money. Ok tons of printed money also.
This is not about hating america but removing nationalism and patroitism and viewing the forrest from afar.
Again thanks for the response.