This month, the United States commemorated two painful days: 9/11 and 9/15. Nine years ago, on Sept. 11, two hijacked planes crashed into the twin towers, resulting in a death toll of 3,000 people. Since then, the relationship that the United States had with the world has changed. Two years ago, on Sept. 15, the collapse of Lehman Brothers triggered a global financial crisis, which brought about a second wave of panic. These two incidents happened in Manhattan, and the distance between their locations was no more than a few miles. Both incidents brought great change to the world, but which incident will be more significant when it goes down in history?
I guess that it will be the ultimate spread of the financial crisis started by Lehman Brothers. This analysis may look strange, because in the eyes of many Americans, 9/11 clearly marked the end of an era. After the Soviet Union disintegrated, the glory that the United States held for 10 years ended with terrorism. Since then, there were two wars — one in Afghanistan and one in Iraq. The United States declared war against terrorism, and this battle has persisted until today.
On the other hand, the panic brought about by the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers was never real, as the next recession never came. Instead, the economy grew again, and this trend of globalization has never reversed. Even so, I still think that the financial crisis will prove to be a greater turning point — not only in financial terms, but also in terms of geopolitics. This is because it is 9/15, and not 9/11, that really symbolized the end of “the unipolar moment.”
Even though the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. were shocking, they did not shake the United States’ position in leading global politics and the global economic system. On the contrary, the United States actually reiterated its influence through this incident. In another part of the world, two governments were being undermined, and the two wars boosted the confidence levels of the Bush administration and other supporters of the United States. To congratulate the United States on claiming victory in the Iraq war, Charles Krauthammer, the conservative columnist who created the phrase “the unipolar moment,” stated that a superpower controls the world without being limited by opponents.
When it came to 2008, the success that the United States’ military had gained in Iraq and Afghanistan was clearly replaced by a depressing situation. However, the strength of the United States’ economy still seemed to be able to support itself as a leader in global politics.
But the financial crisis undoubtedly broke down this assumption. Eventually, the United States grew more aware of the limitations it faces. Even when President Obama announced that there would be greater military strength in Afghanistan, he once hesitantly said that the United States cannot simply neglect the price of war. Expenditure on national defense is being continually reduced.
The United States has also become more aware of the power of its opponents. When the economic crisis first began, many people thought that the world would sink into recession. In the end, China and emerging Asia managed to get out of the recession faster than the United States and other Western countries.
The financial crisis allowed Americans to realize that challenges from China will not emerge in the distant future, but in the near future. Although China’s economy still needs to develop for at least 15 years in order to surpass the United States’ economy, China has already taken up leading roles in some important aspects: it has the world’s largest foreign reserves; it is the world’s largest exporter and the world’s largest steel and greenhouse gas manufacturer; it has the largest market for cars; and it has become the biggest trading partner of emerging economies like India and Brazil.
Even though the United States still holds a dominant position presently, including in regard to China’s Pacific Securities Co. Ltd., China poses an obstacle to the United States’ dominance. This new competition has increased tension between both nations, as evidenced by the protectionist laws that the United States is currently trying to phase in.
The 9/11 and 9/15 incidents reveal the various challenges that the United States faces. Violence may still cause the greatest damage, but it is difficult to imagine whose philosophy would be more unsuitable than Bin Laden’s in terms of dealing with modern times. Indeed, one of the mockeries of 9/11 is that this event may have successfully convinced the United States to shift its resources, for the past 10 years, to fight the wrong threat.
Conversely, it seems very probable that the 21st century will be Asia’s century. This economic shift had already begun since the global financial crisis started. But the crisis could press on due to the accelerated weakening of the West’s dominant status. This is why 9/15 may be more significant than 9/11.
Stories, such as this, are most inspiring and thought provoking. I read Watching America with much interest. My first comment is on the menace of Osama’s Al Qaida terrorist outfit. It could have been nipped in the bud if America, in its own larger and prolonged interests had a better understanding of Islam and in not so blatantly neglecting to foster its relations with it. Frankly speaking it was Israel that became an obstacle simply to attain its limited doubtful and dubious designs. I have laid facts bare in respect of the fraud that Zionists made in creating Israel as a secular entity. In so doing its founder, Ben Gurion, went too far by throwing the Hebrew God out in the cold and that too contemptuously and with disdain. “God,” he said, “had done too little for Jews.” So the oath was taken at the founding ceremony minus God. It is an iniquity bordering on the worshipping of the Golden Calf. America has paid a very heavy price in blindly supporting an entity that is now under a predictable threat from the heavens that might drag America in the fallout. Israel committed far too greater crimes than 9/11 in retaliation of stone throwing urchins in the West Bank with tanks and artillery. One wonders how Bush allowed Sheron to let loose a wave of terror in the whole region to establish Israeli hegemony little knowing that the Hebrew God was watching. The Diaspora Jews know that Israel is doomed and Israeli Jews are full of apprehensions. Shimon Peres knows this. I am a true and admiring friend of Jews. I have offered alternative options to both Shimon Peres and Obama. This said; let us come back to the threat of Al Qaeda. America needs a catalyst by mounting a propaganda machine for reaching out to the Muslim world. The Muslim world is ripe for a change; a change from the autocratic rule to embracing democracy. This would bring the Muslims in the global mainstream. The interaction with the democratic world would open up windows of fostering trade and commerce relations, which depend entirely on peace and stability. Bill Clinton rightly sounded to Americans that their future jobs lie overseas. Does it lie in a shaky Israel? There is still time for America with a better and more enticing appeal to the wide Muslim world for promoting the free enterprise experiment. Look at what the famous five footer Deng Xiaoping did in China. Chinese are more prone to fan out in the world than are Americans. This answers the concern of the story writer about aptly. One needs to make amends, mend fences and reach out to people sharing their values. There is no place of terrorism in Islam. Real “Jihad” ended after the last expedition of the Prophet. He is reported to have said: “We are now entering into a greater Jihad.” The “Jihad” in Afghanistan would be replaced with nation building activities and establishing a democratic set up. Drop the combated foolhardiness. Apologise to Muslims for the wrongs done to them in the past. Portray a larger vision to Americans of the territorial vastness of Islam stretching from Morocco to Indonesia and extending from Pakistan and Afghanistan into Central Asia. American economy is likely to get a boost never imagined before in the developmental framework of untapped resources in Muslim world.. Israeli s would be treated y the Arabs with same hospitality as Ottoman extended to them. Jews firmly believe in the coming of the Messiah to redeem them. They have been blatantly cheated by Zionists, who styled them as the secular Messiah. Jews, too, have a beginning of a new era with Islam in the Middle East.