Indications of an 'American Autumn'?

It is possible — without any abuse of the term — to label the mounting weekly protests on Wall Street in New York as the “American Autumn,” with all of the words’ meanings, implications and connotations.

The chosen description of “American Autumn” does not stem from the date of the beginning of these marches coinciding with the first few days of autumn. Nor is it only due to the U.S. administration’s overused deployment of the expression the “Arab Spring,” sparking fears, concerns and even pains among us. Rather, whoever keeps pace with the political, economic and social developments clearly observes that the American Empire that was preparing to control the whole world in the 21st century has suffered from symptoms of aging, even though it has not yet entered the second decade of this century.

The most dangerous thing the trembling empire faces today is not the economic, financial and political crises which run deep in the biggest and richest nations in the world. Rather, it is the terrible denial from which the empire’s administration suffers in regard to its policies: internal and external, economic and social, strategic and military, through its legislative and executive performance. It was a performance which the Brookings Institute considered the main cause for the budget deficit and the debt reduction crisis.

Whatever trends might push the United States in the next years, which may amount to the disintegration of its unified structure from a federal to a con-federal system comprising of four or five clusters, depends, according to Dr. Ziad Al-Hafiz’s — friend and expert on American matters — expectations of what is more dangerous than the American denial — the European denial. What is more dangerous, Arab governments and regional parties insist, is that Washington is denying its rapidly declining influence and forces. This denial is manifested in several ways, despite “multiple counter-attacks” that the White House has attempted to wage in other regions and fields to suggest that everything remains under their control.

The state of this utter denial, American and European, Arab and regional, explains the wager of some on America’s, or the Europeans’, intervention in this country or that and in this issue or that, all resulting from this wager based on wrong calculations and dangerous practices, leading to bloody violence, counter-violence and then remorse where repentance does not prevail.

If some people saw the blatant American dedication to the Zionist project, which the United Nations’ pulpits witnessed in the last of its sessions a few days ago, surely the close relationship between imperialism and Zionism, including the dedication of this relationship, is viewed as a dangerous vulnerability of Washington’s forces and influence. This vulnerability is usually exposed to the “Allies” before it is revealed to the opponents.

So do those concerned — from politicians and intellectuals to journalists — read regional affairs in the book of international transformations, especially in the chapter on American and European transformations, and conclude with the right lessons from this reading? Do the concerned — the rulers and the people — run the requested revisions, ripping the gamblers from their losing and bloody bets without hesitation, while the capable respond without delay to the demands of their people?

The author is the former secretary-general of the Arab National Conference.