America stopped being a serious geopolitical player some time ago. Probably round about the time President Obama was elected. At that time it became increasingly clear that America was not only unwilling, but also unable, to fight serious wars.
America withdrew from serious geopolitics because it had to. Every single move that George W. Bush had made resulted in failure, enormous cost, and growing weakness.
Indeed, one way to interpret the advent of the Trump presidency is as an attempt to obfuscate that weakness behind a facade of bluster. America is in effect a "post-military empire." This is the true meaning of Trump's hollow aerial strikes on Syria that achieved absolutely nothing and the growing irrelevance of the Americans in Afghanistan.
All the underlying trends point to the diminishing power of America. The trick for Washington is to stop other people realising this until much, much later. Make no mistake about it, this is the exercise America is currently engaged in, and this is also why the current standoff in Venezuela is so important.
Venezuela with its dysfunctional unpopular, tinpot, semi-democratic dictator, is the kind of Banana Republic that an older America used to knock off with confident ease. This is what underwrote the famous Monroe Doctrine, which was based, in its early days, on bluff and keeping Britain's Navy cooperative by holding Canada partly hostage. But, later of course, it was founded on America's own strength.
Now we are witnessing the descendance of this ascendance, with America's fading strength increasingly dependent upon Trumpian bluff.
After some years of preparation—and with Neocon control of America's foreign policy reestablished despite the disruption of not having Jeb or Hillary elected—America has finally decided to show its hand and, with its usual gang of cronies, has declared some nationally un-elected Venezuelan politician president. The hope here is to trigger a peaceful coup or possibly a massacre that could then be used to justify a military incursion in the name of "human rights."
Doing it just for "democracy" sounds a bit odd to Americans who have been hyperventilating over the possibility that Russia may have bought some ads on Facebook to "influence" their politics.
The details of what happens next are not important. What counts here is whether America can pull the strings and ring the changes that it wants against the wishes of other powers that oppose it and have their own interests in Venezuela or at least in the survival of its present government. From various messages of international support, these include China, Russia, and Turkey.
These three countries all have one thing in common—a shared dislike of American political interference on their borders. So, this is not just about the oil, even though Venezuela is estimated to have the largest reserves in the world. No, in addition to that they want to see this anti-American regime tighten its grip on power in order to mess with Uncle Sam's rather capacious backyard.
They clearly sense America weakening, and perhaps they believe that the appropriate course for the ex-Superpower to follow would be for it to retreat back behind its oceans to a scaled down version of its former imperialism, leaving much of the Middle East to Russia and Turkey, and much of Asia and the West Pacific to China.
If they can find a way to bolster their proxy in Venezuela—something the Soviet Union did successfully with Cuba—then they would have taken a big step to prove that America is not only post-military but also post-imperial.
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America withdrew from serious geopolitics because it had to. Every single move that George W. Bush had made resulted in failure, enormous cost, and growing weakness.
Indeed, one way to interpret the advent of the Trump presidency is as an attempt to obfuscate that weakness behind a facade of bluster. America is in effect a "post-military empire." This is the true meaning of Trump's hollow aerial strikes on Syria that achieved absolutely nothing and the growing irrelevance of the Americans in Afghanistan.
All the underlying trends point to the diminishing power of America. The trick for Washington is to stop other people realising this until much, much later. Make no mistake about it, this is the exercise America is currently engaged in, and this is also why the current standoff in Venezuela is so important.
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| America's post-military "occupation" of Afghanistan |
Now we are witnessing the descendance of this ascendance, with America's fading strength increasingly dependent upon Trumpian bluff.
After some years of preparation—and with Neocon control of America's foreign policy reestablished despite the disruption of not having Jeb or Hillary elected—America has finally decided to show its hand and, with its usual gang of cronies, has declared some nationally un-elected Venezuelan politician president. The hope here is to trigger a peaceful coup or possibly a massacre that could then be used to justify a military incursion in the name of "human rights."
Doing it just for "democracy" sounds a bit odd to Americans who have been hyperventilating over the possibility that Russia may have bought some ads on Facebook to "influence" their politics.
The details of what happens next are not important. What counts here is whether America can pull the strings and ring the changes that it wants against the wishes of other powers that oppose it and have their own interests in Venezuela or at least in the survival of its present government. From various messages of international support, these include China, Russia, and Turkey.
These three countries all have one thing in common—a shared dislike of American political interference on their borders. So, this is not just about the oil, even though Venezuela is estimated to have the largest reserves in the world. No, in addition to that they want to see this anti-American regime tighten its grip on power in order to mess with Uncle Sam's rather capacious backyard.
They clearly sense America weakening, and perhaps they believe that the appropriate course for the ex-Superpower to follow would be for it to retreat back behind its oceans to a scaled down version of its former imperialism, leaving much of the Middle East to Russia and Turkey, and much of Asia and the West Pacific to China.
If they can find a way to bolster their proxy in Venezuela—something the Soviet Union did successfully with Cuba—then they would have taken a big step to prove that America is not only post-military but also post-imperial.
Connected Content:
Trump's UN Speech Reveals Subservience to Israel and Saudi Arabia
Become a Patron!
