Russia, China See End To American Hegemony
By Cernig Saturday Sep 27, 2008 7:00pm
Seven years ago the Bush administration brought neoconservatives into a position of power with a dream of everlasting American hegemony, a unipolar superpower who would dictate military, economic and cultural terms to the world. The end of history in many neocon minds came with a momentous date - 9/11.
Seven years later, the Bush administration's mismanagement of the nation has ensured that that the neoconservative dream is crushed.
Russia is looking forward to, and recruiting allies for, a multipolar future -invoking 9/11 as the reason to do so.
"The solidarity of the international community fostered on the wave of struggle against terrorism turned out to be somehow `privatized'... It has become crystal clear that the solidarity expressed by all of us after 9/11 should be revived (without double standards) when we fight against any infringements upon the international law," [Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov] said.
Lavrov called for a new "solidarity" of the international community and a strengthened United Nations, saying only in the post-Cold War world can the organization "fully realize its potential" as a global center "for open and frank debate and coordination of the world policies on a just and equitable basis free from double standards."
"This is an essential requirement, if the world is to regain its equilibrium," he said.
Russia hasn't exactly been guiltless about double standards - I'm thinking about Chechnya and internal dissent as well as an over-response to Georgian aggression in South Ossetia - but Lavrov has a point. After 9/11, even Iranian leaders were proclaiming solidarity with the US. What happened was that the outpouring of genuine concern that could have shaped a new co-operative world was harnessed to give the neocon adventure a temporary Coalition of the Willing instead. Their lust for Empire burned up all the political capital America had on the world stage - and now even if McCain was elected to continue the neoconservative fever he wouldn't be able to, the world is just too resistant to it.
By probably deliberate contrast to McCain's call to ostracize Russia and other nations he designated undemocratic (as opposed to Georgia, where Saaskivilli had opponents beaten in the streets), Lavrov is also calling for a new organisation to bind disparate European nations together in a common interest of security.
Declaring that Europe's security architecture "did not pass the strength test" in Georgia, Lavrov reiterated Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's proposal in June for a new Treaty on European Security.
It would strengthen peace and stability and participants would reaffirm the non-use of force, peaceful settlement of disputes, sovereignty, territorial integrity and noninterference in another country's affairs, he said. Finally, he added, it would promote "an integrated and manageable development across the vast Euro-Atlantic region."
Lavrov said work on the new treaty could be started at a pan-European summit and include governments as well as organizations working in the region.
He referred to it as "a kind of `Helsinki-2'," a follow-up to the 1975 Helsinki Treaty between all European nations, together with the U.S. and Canada, which evolved into the present-day Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the largest conflict-prevention and security organization on the continent.
That's called dangling a carrot - offering security cooperation with a newly resurgent Russia while clearly offering the possibility that America might not get invited to multipolar Europe's party if it won't play nice.
Then there's China, where reports have it that financiers are nervous about the possibility of America's imminent economic collapse. Again, it was the Bush administration and a financial version of the neoconservative arrogant wish for American domination that brought American power to its current state. In an article for China Daily, a Chinese government researcher writes:
is it the end of US financial hegemony? In addition to the latest financial crisis, the US has so far experienced another financial crisis since the turn of the century - the bursting of its technological bubble. Many foreign investors have suffered heavy losses in these two crises. Some economists even warned that such cyclical formation of bubbles will seriously compromise foreign investors’ confidence in the US financial market.
And the folks at WorldMeets.US, who translated the article, add "What could be more unnerving than having your largest creditor begin pondering your financial demise?"
Maybe, if you're a neocon like John McCain, having your largest rivals - China, Russia and Europe - pondering the demise of your ability to protect your hegemony and knowing your own kind ruined American power.
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First!
And if by some fluke (or Diebold cheating) McCain wins, the U.S. will be completely marginalized in the world. You ought to read world opinion about us and even the fact that there is a remote chance McCain/Palin could win. We are toast if they do.
Thanks W.
Sorry to burst your glee:
"As the world grapples with the fallout from Wall Street's shenanigans, there's no shortage of consternation, and even anger. But so far the international image of the U.S. economic model has shown amazing resilience. Lehman Brothers may be in the morgue and AIG on government-funded life support, but most businesspeople think the U.S. is more about Silicon Valley and Hollywood than the erstwhile dynamos of Wall Street. Even in China—where broadcaster CCTV-2 has been running two hours of special programming every night about the financial crisis—the U.S. is still a land to be emulated."
quite right scy, mccain wins and our "soft power" deflates like a wall street bubble, as happened after the second election of assclown, only this time their toolbox is full of ways to bring us down, china could do it lone. the era of bluster is over
Neo-conservatism must be the most naive form of imperialism ever to endanger the world.
Its proponents issued a manifesto that betrayed the ambitions of men in a state of arrested development: Since the world remained a dangerous place despite the end of the Cold War, the United States -- the biggest, baddest state left alive -- should invade smaller countries, all of whose residents naturally want to be just like us anyway, remake them in our image, and warn the rest of the world that they're next. This, they felt, would be easy.
Anyone with half a brain would recognize such a plan as both monstrous and impossible. So, they successfully conspired to install a president with less than half a brain, and proved their plan to be monstrous and impossible.
Instead of being on television offering their insane punditry, they should all be in prison. Forever.
Americaneocon @ 4:
They are emulating us.. and I believe their lack of industrial regulation has led to a tainted milk epidemic and lead paint on children's toys.
Oooh, look at the neocon.. still hoping for validation.
I'm more than happy to watch Globalism die.
And here's a link to the article in Business Week from which Americanneocon cherry-picked the most hopeful paragraph.
Regards, C
Any surprise that The Bush Cheney Junta and The Republican Crime Syndicate has initiated the destruction of America?
It's a "New American Century" alright. Bankrupt, distrusted and and end to world hegemony, after the failure of the political stunt in Georgie, sorted out by the French. Have some Liberty Fries.
Both the GOP and their conservative doctrine are dead. And if 'Murkans are really dumb enough to appoint McCheeks and Failin in November, you can just stick a fork into what's left of the 230 years-old American experiment, because it will truly be over. I'm already planning a move to either Canada or the islands - just in case.
@ American, # 4: from what, exactly, are you mining that quote? Further, assuming the quote is true, the only thing it really invalidates is the modern conservative stance on immigration. "Those people want to live like us and tell their family and friends about how great it is to live like us! Rather than recognize this incredibly powerful asset and extend our hands in friendship in the likely result of an increased number of friends at home and abroad we will act like xenophobic assclowns! Thiary're tekken uour jarbs!"
upchuck @ 8:
Yeh but will we die with it?
Americaneocon @ 4:
Yeah sure looks like those "pesky furiners" are tickled silly at being sold trillions of dollars of securites that contained garbage mortgages!
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/537372a4-8d88-11dd-83d5-0000779fd18c,dwp_uuid=...
Americaneocon @ 4:
Typical Right Wing thinking we are gleeful. No, we are pissed at what your philosophy has done to this Country. And no one said that the U.S. has suddenly become some obscure island nation. However, our power (not just economic) is extraordinarily minimalized since W took power. Our international respect is toilet water. We could do nothing about Georgia. We don't have the military to stabilize Afghanistan. We can do little about Iran . . . and the list goes on and on and on. Furthermore, if indeed you do read more than U.S.publications, the world has made it clear they see us as dangerous. And if McCain/Palin gets in we become unacceptably dangerous . . . especially if McCain dies. They will not tolerate it. Oh they will pay lip service to being an ally, but we will be marginalized. China, Russia and India are seen as the emerging world powers. Have they caught up to us? Not yet. But if you are watching a race and the leaders suddenly starts running backwards (creationism, torture, etc) it doesn't take a geniua to see that the race leader is going to lose and, ultimately, finish last.
IdiotShrub @ 12:
Amen to every word!!!
Sad to say, Osama bin Laden won.
Any neoconservative cabal, "take over the world" type of thinking is doomed to fail. Empires always fail. The human race must now work together in solidarity with all this new technology, and give up the crazed dream of one nation ruling over all others.
Scy @ 16:
Amen Amen and Amen!!!
If you were a punter, either China or Russia, would you vote for your own currency, knowing the deep-rooted corruption of your own system, or would you vote for the (relatively) transparent currency which is the Thaler. I mean Dollar.
Scy @ 16:
motorfingaz @ 17:
Canadian Immigration is back-logged. If you come, try applying as a politcal refugee, from a failed state, that wants to persecute you.
If you and I conducted our finances like the U.S. government has under Bush, our credit would be cut off. If foreigners that we depend to loan us money continue to see that there is no intention to align federal outlays with inlays, then they'll have every reason to believe that dollar devaluation will continue. They won't lend at reasonable interests rates, and the U.S. will be forced to live within it's means. And, if the treasury prints money, that will dilute the currency, which won't change net purchasing power. I see the foreigners cutting off borrowing within a year, although, the sale of U.S. equity will still supply cash flow for a while.
Never should have given up Clinton's balanced budgets with the hype of tax cuts made up by money that grows on trees.
Only way out of this is to get out of being the world's policeman. Do we have so few allies that we need to spend 50% of world military expenditures?
Edwin Hussein @ 23:
Unfortunately, Canada is leaning hard right these days, too. When are/were your elections? What happened or are expected. From what I read, hard righties are taking over.
Americaneocon @ 4:
Americaneocon @ 4:
The next step in this process is that some Russian , Saudi, or Chinese will own the Dallas Cowboys or The New York Yankees or even the Green Bay Psckers.Fasten your seat belt because this is coming.
Foxes like to eat chickens. Chickens are dimitted .
Mission Accomplished.
I repeat: if you were a punter (i.e. investor) from either China or Russia, would you bet on your own country's corrupt financial systems or on the (relatively) transparent U.S. financial system?
My bet's with the Thaler (gold/silver).
motorfingaz @ 17:
Agreed. I'm fortunate enough to live abroad, and am not planning on moving back unless there is radical change.
It's difficult to understand, when you're living in it--particularly due to the insular media--just how twisted of a place it's becoming. The fact that McCain is even in the race is unfathomable to average people in other countries.
Well, hate to say it, but the Democrats are pounding the nails in our coffin even now. They should have slammed the door in Paulson's face and closed up shop. Add to that, Obama's bellicose stance in that debate on Friday, and I wouldn't be surprised if Congress declares war on Russia and China tomorrow.
I'm not sure it matters to the neocons. They still think we 'won' something in Iraq other than empowering a Shiite government that wants us gone. They're ready to pick fights with Russia, North Korea, and Iran. (In the latter case, clinging desperately to a misinterpreted quote as proof that Ahahahmadmudmedinandoutburgerajad is A Really Bad Person.)
The we-can-do-whatever-we-want philosophy that seems to be the neocons' hallmark trait has never reckoned with reality, political, economic, or otherwise.
Americaneocon @ 4:
"As the world grapples with the fallout from Wall Street's shenanigans, there's no shortage of consternation, and even anger. But so far the international image of the U.S. economic model has shown amazing resilience......
They are emulating us.. "
Yes, they are following the American model- it is WE who have abandoned it.
Americaneocon @ 4:
Oh you neocons have done a bang up job of destroying every strategic alliance the US has ever had. First strike doctrines, illegal wars, immoral acts like torture, and now the criminal syndicate that Wall Street has become has made us enviable???
They find us a necessary evil... at the moment thanks to you and your ilk!
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a3law7Slv8BA&refer=home
And so it begins. According to this guy it's not going to be very much longer and toilet paper will have more value than the American dollar. China is sitting on about three trillion of them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sS65bA4kKVE
Anyone who has been aware of the neo-con plan should not be surprised. Full-spectrum dominance militarily (including space) and economically is too breathlessly childish to be believed by any but the most foolish and deluded, if not pathologically ill, ideologues.
Neo-liberal economic policy is dead, and deservedly so. Any philosophy so myopic that it can't see that people who don't have jobs can't BUY the products that corporations profit from deserves a horrible death. And this orgy of speculative gambling on Wall-Street coupled with the demand to bail them out is wicked stupid or wicked smart, but either way--- WICKED.
Eight years.
In only eight years this President invaded a sovereign country with the backing of the American congress who chose to listen to his lies. You would think this alone would have caused an impeachment. The Bush administration has completely destroyed every sector of the United States as we once knew it.
Firing US Attorneys and replacing them with incompetent yes men, Outing a CIA agent and putting her and the nation in danger to get revenge, no bid contracts to his Vice Presidents business who have repeatedly overcharged the taxpayers, illegally torturing prisoners, abolishing habeous corpus, tapping the phones pf American citizens, allowing Katrina victims to perish without government help, letting lobbyists write laws that allow them to sell pharmaceuticals at unchallenged prices, allowing oil prices to reach record profits while they receive federal tax cuts, global warming, Walter Reed VA hospital, and assisting deregulation for the mortgage lending companies which led to the largest economic crisis in American history.
As an American Taxpayer with two college aged daughters and about $200. in my checking account, I'm having a hell of hard time believing him and Hank Paulson (who is personally worth over $500 million dollars) tell me that I have to give them more money to help their friends get out of a jam.
If McCain, who is a part of the problems we incur, gets elected president of the United States, I will move to Canada. I'll wave the white flag while watching what was once a great nation, implode because of personal greed.
Golden parachutes remain
They also will not be allowed to write new contracts that allow for "golden parachutes" for their top 5 executives if they are fired or the company goes belly up. But the executives' current contracts, which may include golden parachutes, would still stand.
CNN - Rescue bill unveiled
wiley @ 34:
Form world power to pariah nation in less than 8 years! WoW! Of course this all started with Reagan and has gone from bad to worse to disaster. This is beyond criminal and how many called for an accounting? Damn few. To have taken impeachment off the table is a almost as criminal as the crimes of Bush and Cheney. Almost, but not quite. Still if you think the GOP, the Conservatives and the Neocons are dead, you are wrong. They are still very powerful thanks to the special interests who support them.
Beyond that, the tragedy of deregulation and conservative thinking that has led to one disaster after another, will continue to plague us for decades to come. I believe it will take 40 to 50 years to recover. However, a crumbling infrastructure, global warming and peak oil may do us in by then, because I don't expect us to act quickly enough to avert these major disasters in the making.
Good luck to us all, we will need it.
Fuck Russia and China. America is going to clean itself up from the inside with the help of blogs like C&L. We'll handle the mess.
Same song, another verse:
Guardian UK (OpEd): A shattering moment in America's fall from power
NoBuddy @ 24:
IN A NUTSHELL, PEOPLE HAVE GONE FROM SEEING THE U.S. AS A BEACON OF LIGHT AND FREEDOM TO A TWISTED RELIGIO-FASCIST STATE WITH EASIER ACCESS TO GUNS THAN HEALTHCARE AND THE DUMBEST LEADER IN HISTORY.
THAT'S THE GOD'S HONEST TRUTH.
Widespread @ 27:
I would not invest any of my money ( meager is at is) in China or Russia.Americans (indirecly)through their pension plans , do, and the managers( Americans) of these pension plans use derivatives and exotic investment schemes to put your investments at incredible risks. The problem lies within. If you are debt free you understand money management.
America has always had a problem with money management .Read a bit more.
The foxes are on the prowl. When this is over most of America will be owned by non-Americans.
Cernig @ 9:
Thanks Cernig!!
Question... anybody...
The neo-cons/republicans have the meme that the financial crisis is, of course, all the Democrats fault, specifically Jimmy Carter's CRA of 1977 and Bill Clinton's stricter penalties (for not adhering to the CRA) on banks in 1995. And, naturally that leads to blaming the poor brown & Black people.
My response thus far has been to point out the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 which relaxed regulations on CRAs and allowed, in Phil Gramm's words, financial institutions to become "financial supermarkets" (ending enforcement of the Glass-Steagall Act) I've also mentioned a study showing that CRAs were the least likely to become CDO's (collaterialized debt obligations).
Does anyone have a concise, hardhitting response to the fallacy that it is all the liberals fault?
VegasRage @ 36:
Not sure why the idiot news thinks golden parachutes are limited. It's not the new contracts we are worried about, it's the existing one in place that will allow these mongrels to get a huge windfall as their ship sinks. Their are not going to be any new contracts between now and the a companies collapse. DUH!
I dunno'. In the words of Rodney King, "Can't we all just get along??" Isn't it time that we all realize we live on this one little planet and we have no place to go if we screw this one up????
As Lao Tzu said - hundreds of years ago: "Those who do not know when enough is enough, can never have enough."
Isome @ 43:
http://tpzoo.wordpress.com/?s=mandate&searchsubmit=Find+%C2%BB
There's a video out there somewhere with Bush basically saying McMansions for all! No need for someone's first home to be anything but wonderful. I heard it on Randi Rhodes the other day. I didn't search for it, though.
Isome @ 43:
Follow the money
In eight years, all of our respect in the world has been damaged. If any, Bush's legacy is that he brought America to its knees with a knife to her throat. Even worse, we are at our nadir in influence due to greed, voter disenfranchisement, corruption, usurptation and the debasement of our Constitution.
It is a shame that there were Americans who let this man into office to gut out everything we hold dear.
There must be a racket going on because I don't believe that a country couldn't get this bad without any efforts to save it.
It makes me want to ask this question yet again:
Didn't the people who voted Bush in know that he ran other businesses in the ground? Are they that stupid that this man is not an effective business man or leader?
A multi-polar political environment is much more stable than a unipolar one....international politics 101.
#43 - Isome ... I gave you the wrong link above:
http://tpzoo.wordpress.com/2008/09/24/who-created-the-fannie-maefreddie-...
I think America needs to become a Parliamentary Democracy like the UK and others in Europe, that way when we see our representative screwing us we can throw them out easily.
Isome @ 43:
Mention the ties of John and Cindy McCain (to Keating as well as Cindy's familial history), Phil Gramm and his wife, and the entire S and L scandal.
Better yet, mention that Reagan and his policies started the deregulation ball rolling.
The Very Bitter Ceci Hussein @ 48:
Hey, that makes him a reg-u-lar guy, not one of them elitists who went to college and like made money and stuff.
A very interesting carrot indeed. I think however a resurgent Russia based almost exclusively on hydrocarbon and raw material exports would have a very hard time persuading Europe to abandon the NATO alliance in favor of some other organization along the lines suggested. The heavy handed response in Georgia sent a very clear message to Europe. They too have military power and are not afraid to use it. " Territorial integrity and non-interference in another country's affairs" seems somewhat at odds with their behavior in Georgia and their renegade provinces as well as the very overt military threat agianst the Ukraine. It sounds more like a renewed spheres of interest proposal to give Putin, the real Russian power, a free hand at home.Still it's definetely something to talk about. The Chinese assessment was surprisingly restrained and fundamentally accurate. The folks at WorldMeets may have overlooked a very important point. The Chinese are not merely your creditors they are also your biggest investors. If the US falls or the dollar tanks their massive investments would be worth considerably less, perhaps nothing at all. They're not demand loans you know.
☺☻Bangkok Bob☻☺ @ 51:
I am all for that! No confidence...buh bye. No waiting for more disastrous years. Get rid of the bums. And take Pelosi and Reid with Bush. They all suck.
MsJoanne @ 53:
And believe it or not, they are still trying to push that meme with McCain. :(
I'm just saddened that people just don't realize this country's on the operating table with Bush holding the paddles. The country is about to flatline if it stays in Bush's hands.
As for the hegemony? I think our international influence is already dead in that department.
Ceci, exactly. I don't know when we stopped appreciating the use of ones mind to earn a living, and since there is so little mfg. jobs here any longer, there should be that much more value for very smart people. It just shows how fucking stupid people are.
I continue to be blown away by people voting against themselves.
MsJoanne @ 55:
Right, as it is, we're stuck till their term runs it's disastrous course.
One thing we should do is make it OK to be gay and hold office like Barney Frank. He got more respect by admitting he was gay. Although at this point for the Queen of SC Lindsey Graham, it would take more than coming out of the closet to save his sorry ass, he and Lieberman would be toast along with that guy who cry's for the camera, what's his name ..... Boner?
Well, all...it's bedtime.
Night all! Hugs all around (with a few extra here and there).
Isome @ 43:
Poor, black, and brown people don't create credit "derivatives" out of thin air.
"All righty then, as your VP I proclaim the USA a country first (as per our slogan) and then.....whatever...."
MountainMan23 @ 40:
First let me say MountainMan23 that you have been posting some really excellent sources of information and articles. Hat Tip to ya!
The last line of your post talks of the demise Laissez-faire "free market" bullshit system which gives me some hope. The Neocons and conservatives have their "free market" pants down around their ankles for all the world to see!
However, notice the Republicons in the the House and what they pulled in the bail-out process... they are alive and well with lots of little ideological storm troopers and that gives me pause.
Most Americans have become aware that the top .01% of the population control the vast majority of the wealth in the US and that the wage disparity has returned to what it was during the 1920's and the age of "robber baron capitalism"... a new "Gilded Age"
What they don't know is that we were sold this crap as the impact of globalization, that it never happened in the other industrialized nations and their middle class is alive and well, not to mention that they all have affordable health care for all of their citizens and we don't.
I have no idea of what the future holds for us as the hole we are in is so deep and it will take decades to dig ourselves out of it.
Some will look at this as Uncle Sam's Credit Card bill came due... others will see it as "God playing to an audience that is too scared to laugh"... me? I just hope it is the turning point of the fulcrum and the beginning of real change.
Obama is a good man... but he is only one man... as he says... we are the agents of change. Now will we live up to that.
PS. Got any more room on top of that there mountain?
VegasRage @ 36:
This is the issue that probably causes the biggest problem.
The share holders can sue, which they will, and make the lives of these senior executives very miserable.
Class action suites are also on the table.
Banking in America has a history of fraud. Someone is going to jail on this baby.
The US Federal deficit will suffer , as what happened in the Savings and loan bailout, most of which was paid for by American tax payers.
So figure out a means to cut your losses.
What I do not understand is why many people exposed themselves to RISK by electing to roll second homes , vacations, new cars and speculative purchases (like condos) and new cars into their mortgages.
Anyway , on many occasion Mr. Bush stated, " I encourage Americans to go shoping ". or something like that. It's a culture within the Repubican Party.
Read what the IMF or the World Bank demands third world countries to subscribe to befoe those 3rd world countries get loans>
BobbyFlav @ 60:
Neither do poor whites.
MsJoanne @ 57:
It just seems that people are so emotionally lead by leaders who only push the wedge issues that they vote against their best interests. And it's happening here again, when the American electorate should be smarter and wiser. It insulting to think that people would set in the chains of destruction just because of the manipulations of a man like Karl Rove. It's as if Karl Rove is dumbing down the entire protocols, traditions and decorum of the election season to his level. He's even making the entire process criminal.
But despite my doom and gloom, I do hope that people are waking up and smelling the coffee. I have faith that folks are growing tired of this crap and would want to do something about it.
MsJoanne @ 55:
Hi MsJoanne. If you ever do that just don't use a first past the post system. It badly distorts proportional representation. The vote splitting between the centrist Liberals and the more left wing NDP parties up here usually gets the Conservatives at least thirty extra seats and effectively locks out new parties like the Green party.