Another week, another war, eh, boys? That is certainly how it seems nowadays. Conflicts are springing up all over the world, in very odd places. The most recent of them is a mutual exchange of missiles that threatens to blow up into a full-scale regional war in South Asia, between Iran and Pakistan, over a huge territory shared between them called “Balochistan”.
Those with an eye for history may recognise this as the region of Persia around about where none other than Alexander the Great met Roxana, his second wife, and mother of his only son, when he stopped by on his way to invading India via the Hindu Kush. When his troops mutinied and refused to go any further, that same Alexander had to turn back and make his way through the Balochi mountains toward Babylon – losing, by some estimates, 40,000 men along the way.
(Also, for those of you who remember that Oliver Stone film, starring Colin Farrel and Angelina Jolie, with the latter’s very weird accent, and the former’s thoroughly Oirish Alexander, you may recall a certain Rosario Dawson playing the part of Roxana. I have never understood why, because Roxana was, by every account then and since, an extraordinarily beautiful woman, while Ms Dawson… just isn’t.)
In the broader context of world events, that flare-up, on top of the already highly volatile situation in the Red Sea, the moral failures of the Israelis as an American proxy in Gaza, and the total catastrophe that is Project Ukraine, all point to one simple conclusion:
The Empire of Lies is falling apart at the seams.
This is not exactly some astounding geopolitical insight – I am not that smart, and do not pretend to be. It is merely an observation of facts that all point in a singular direction. You know that old saying about how “Nature abhors a vacuum” – well, it is true. And what we see right now is all of the old region rivalries and problems, reasserting themselves as the American Empire collapses and fails.
This will get worse as American withdrawal from its overseas bases – really, imperial outposts – becomes a physical reality, rather than an abstract inevitability. I expect to see things getting VERY nasty in the Korean Peninsula, for instance – it is not as though the Norks are in the least bit intimidated by their dog-eating cousins down south, after all. That doesn’t mean the Nork military is actually good – we have no idea whether it is or not, though it can clearly bring immense firepower to bear on any enemies – but we can say with considerable confidence that the Sork military is not.
Any world-spanning empire always creates chaos and failures when it collapses. This is a pattern we observe throughout history. Imperial hegemonic power always and everywhere suppresses ancient feuds and rivalries, held at bay for fear of the Empire’s legions marching in and slaughtering one side or the other, depending on which potentate the Empire decides to support at any given time.
That worked for the American Empire, too. Which is odd, considering the Americans – or at least, the ordinary people – refuse to admit they even are an empire. Their elites, of course, are a little different – some of them, in their exceptionally rare moments of actual candour, might admit that, in fact, American interests are imperial ones. But many ordinary Americans seem to be in an exceptionally dense state of denial about their country, and its footprint on the rest of the world.
America was never supposed to be an empire. Its Founders – well, most of them – always intended for the United States of America to have a weak central government, with a well-defined division of powers, free trade with other nations, and self-interested neutrality with respect to Great Power conflicts.
As the new nation evolved, of course, it saw the need to create a strong Navy, to protect its trade interests, and eventually an expeditionary Army, capable of bringing war to other people’s shores. But it was still never a country designed and built to be an empire.
The changes that took place over the last 50 years, in particular, have shattered that original idea of a free and self-governing republic. I think anyone with the sense God gave a honey badger can figure out that the Imperial court in Washington, D.C., has absolutely zero interest (as a whole) in representing such a laughable concept as “the will of the people”, and is instead interested only in wealth and power.
For better, and worse, that order is now collapsing. Let us hope whatever replaces it will be slightly less insane, and somewhat more in line with the realities of the world. Whatever emerges out of the collapse that is coming, will hopefully still be a Great Power, but more restrained, more wise, and more circumspect in its exercise of power and military force – not, of course, that it will be able to do so for a good long while. After all, it took the Russians nearly 20 years after the collapse of the USSR to be able to smash the Georgian military in 2008 – NATO-backed, -trained, and -supplied, no less – and another five after that to intervene in Syria.
It is worth keeping in mind that, when it collapsed, the whole of the USSR had an approximately US$2.7T GDP – barely HALF the American GDP of over US$5.5T at the time. And the USSR, back then, devoted nearly half of its entire GDP to the military.
This is not far off from US$1T – in 1990 money – which is close to what the FUSA spends on its military today. Of course, in present-day dollars, that would be worth nearly US$2.4T – about 10% of the current US GDP, without taking into account the fact that American economic statistics are cooked to a degree that would make the old Arthur Andersen accounting scandals look trivial by comparison.
If we take the USSR as our guidepost, this means the US will be unlikely to project power, in any serious way, for generations after America collapses.
And that, given what America has done with that power over the past generation, is a VERY GOOD THING.
Anyway, now that I’m done pissing off all the Americans, let’s have one on for the lovely lady of the week – fair and balanced and all that jazz, after all.
This here is Serina Morizio, age 24 from somewhere in the FUSA, though with a name like that, she must surely be of Eyetie descent, or something similar. Unsurprisingly, given her exceptional looks, she is a really-for-real model, and by all appearances is a rather good one.
Happy Friday, boys. I’m off for a weekend trip, followed by a return to the grind in short order after that, but I hope you get some good rest, even if I may not.
1 Comment
free trade with other nations
.
trade with other nations, yes. and “free trade” between and amongst the States, yes. but i’d be careful about “international free trade” being a founding principle of the US.
.
the Constitution as originally written defines most Federal revenues as origination from Duties and Tariffs. ie – taxes on international trade