After the victory of the Allied Forces against the Germany-led Axis Forces in the 2nd World War, the US emerged as a superpower. In order to browbeat its chief rival USSR and to gain a monopoly, the US got involved in a prolonged Cold War.
Afghanistan became the graveyard of the Soviet Empire and it led to its demise in 1991. The US which had played a role in dwarfing the USSR into the Russian Federation became the unchallenged sole superpower. Pakistan and the Afghan Mujahideen were instrumental in awarding this status to the USA.
The penchant of the US Military Industrial Complex for wars, conflicts, proxy wars and clandestine operations made the US Corporates dirty and rich but lacerated the 3rd world as well as marginalized Americans. The successive regimes of the US remained focused on warmongering and stealing the resources of weaker nations.
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Post 9/11 history
Drunk with power, wealth and diplomatic clout, the US under George W. Bush junior repeated the mistake committed by Great Britain and the Soviets, and invaded Afghanistan in 2001, which is easy to swallow but impossible to digest. Opening the second front in Iraq and bleeding the Muslim countries with a vengeance was another fault. The defeat and ouster of the US-NATO forces in Aug 2001 after fighting the longest war for 20 years, shook the foundations of uni-polarity and broke the myth of the US military’s invincibility.
The senseless war during which the global recession took place in 2007-08, followed by the deadly Coronavirus in 2020, had a telling effect on the economies of the US and Europe. The US became the most indebted country in the world and the largest portion of its foreign debts are owed to its arch-rival China.
Decline of the American power?
While Bush and Obama contributed to the decline of power and prestige of the US, Donald Trump gave fatal blows to the US democratic values and its élan.
Accumulation of massive wealth and excessive military power and their misuse was at the cost of lowering social values and moral turpitude. The US topped in social crimes and rapes. Although slavery was abolished by Abraham Lincoln, and the curtain of segregation of blacks from whites was lifted, in practice these vices remained in vogue. The hatred of the white supremacists against the black Americans didn’t melt down. Racism, fascism and white supremacism escalated during the Trump rule. He had dangled a lollypop to the whites to ‘Make America Great Again’ (MAGA) by their power.
The resurgence of China and Russia
China and Russia took full advantage of the US’s deep involvement in military adventures, covert operations and in regime changes, and diverted their energies in building their economies, technical skills, and technology, improving their conventional and unconventional military capacities, and becoming self-reliant in all the fields.
As a result, while China has become the second strongest economic power, militarily, it is now in a position to face the US military might. Both are flexing muscles in Taiwan Strait and in and around the South China Sea in the Asia Pacific Ocean and a clash between the two has become a distinct possibility.
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Russia which was in the woods throughout the 1990s has reasserted its authority as a global power under Putin. It still holds the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons, has the largest ground forces, and has the largest reserves of gas. Its strength can be measured by its audacity to invade and occupy half of Ukraine and its readiness to confront the US-NATO forces.
Explosive internal dynamics of the US
The internal political strife in the US is getting grimmer with every passing day. Trump had sowed the seeds of dissent, violence and defiance during his abrasive tenure. He is vying to return to power and his zealous followers desire the same. The tiff between Joe Biden administration and Trump, and between America’s political left and right, has become fierce. These sorts of tensions were never witnessed before in US democratic history.
Historically, the election results were always accepted by the losing presidential candidate with grace, and he would congratulate the winner and attend the inauguration ceremony. In spite of the political rivalry between the Republicans and the Democrats, the two parties co-existed peacefully until harmony was disturbed by Trump due to his impulsive and unpredictable behavior. He didn’t accept his defeat in the Nov 2020 contest and incited thousands of supporters to storm the Senate Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan 6, 2021.
Since his ouster, Trump has been casting aspersions upon Biden and complaining that his victory was stolen by rigging. He holds Biden responsible for the humiliating exit of the US forces from Afghanistan. He is facing several court cases. The raid of his house in Florida by the FBI on August 6 further angered the Republican lawmakers and their antagonism against the Democrats have scaled new heights. There is no likelihood of the tempers cooling down in the near future.
The Republicans are politically very strong since they control the governorship of 28 out of 50 States, they hold 50 out of 100 seats in the Senate, and 211 out of 435 seats in the House of Representatives. The Republicans also occupy a vast number of judicial seats and control the Supreme Court. They are deeply embedded in the officer cadre of the military. The Homeland Security, FBI, Immigration, and Police are filled with hundreds of thousands of pro-Trump officials. A heavy segment of the corporate media is also under the influence of the Republican Party.
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Far-right supporters have become more intolerant and ferocious, and are spewing venom on social media. They view the Biden regime as illegitimate, rotten to the core, which has done nothing to improve the living conditions of the working class. Filled with rage and distrust, they are itching to start a full-fledged civil war with the government.
Fears of a civil war
Political polarization is morphing into political violence. Growing hatred between the Left and the Right has become so toxic, and their views on social issues are so divergent, that fears are being expressed by the public in the USA that the country is ripe for a second civil war. The LGBT rights and the Black Lives movement are seen as existential threats to the integrity of the nation and their traditional Christian values.
The progressive forces in the US including the Democrats view the MAGA movement spearheaded by Trump as a racist and fascist movement, bent upon imposing Far-Right ideology and exterminating the non-whites. The gun culture which is taking many lives of innocent people including children is rampant.
Half of the population is convinced that the way society has got sharply divided on race and ideological basis, there is bound to be a civil war. They strongly feel that they must have weapons to defend themselves and their families.
With 1% elites rolling in wealth and the other 99% living from hand to mouth, the downtrodden have become fed up with democracy. They feel that it is fake and it serves the interests of the rich only.
The majority of the marginalized minorities are inclined to achieve their political objectives through violent means. The popular demand is to overthrow the constitution and to replace decayed democracy with dictatorship. This radical change is rooted in an aversion to the accursed capitalist system, which is wholly pro-rich, and the decline of the US global dominance.
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How does the selected US elite stay in power?
In spite of heinous crimes against humanity, unjust and prejudiced policies, keeping the great majority of the Americans impoverished, denial of justice, freedom of speech and basic human rights to the marginalized segments of society, repeated military adventures ending in calamitous failures, how come the two mainstream political parties – Democrats and Republicans – have been ruling the USA for decades and have got away with all their infirmities? The two parties have kept up the pretension of democracy, which in actuality is an oligarchy.
The reason is that the two main parties as well as all other levers of power are controlled by the Zionists, the American-Jewish lobby and Israel. These controllers control the Federal Reserve Bank and all big banks, corporations, the economy, sources of information, Hollywood, print and electronic media and radio. They manipulate homeland security and foreign policy. They instigate false flag operations, wars, conflicts and proxy wars to enable the US defense industry to earn huge profits by selling arms. Diseases are intentionally spread in the 3rd world to make the pharmaceutical industry profitable. They instigate regime changes and prop up fascist regimes in the developing world while propagating the merits of democracy.
The managers are in collusion with the Pentagon, National Security, CIA and other power centers. No president, legislator, senator, or governor can get elected without the approval of the managers. Enjoying monopoly over the Electoral College in the USA, they manipulate and rig elections and in this, the bankers play a major role.
The curriculum of the US Schools was subverted by Rockefellers in 1924 and since then education has been standardized. Students are indoctrinated and their IQ levels are lowered by using fluoride in water. The purpose is to rob their sense of originality and thinking and to make them think what they want to. In other words, make them dumb-headed. The TV and radio give out censored news only due to which ordinary citizens have little idea about the global happenings.
The CIA had used mind cloning techniques on American soldiers and mercenaries during the 2nd world war. Later on, it imported drugs to make certain American audiences drug addicts and to reduce their will to fight back. In all the US foreign invasions, apart from the genocide of the local population, the CIA used depleted uranium and Agent Orange in captured areas to incapacitate the resistance forces. It also uses techniques to develop negative tendencies in the targeted counties. Other tactics in use are smear campaigns, blackmail, bribes and murders.
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With the home front in turmoil, it has become that much more difficult for the Biden administration to tackle the twin threats posed by China and Russia. Both have challenged the US-run exploitative world order and corrupt capitalist system and want to replace it with an impartial world order based on justice.
The writer is a retired Brig Gen, war veteran, defense, security & political analyst, international columnist, and author of five books. He can be reached at asifharoonraja@gmail.com. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Global Village Space’s editorial policy.