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Onward,
Alexander, Jeffrey, Becky and Deva
November
13, 2006
After the Party
The
Decline of the American Empire
By SHEPHERD BLISS
The Democratic Party, re-vitalized in
part by progressive grassroots groups and hard work, prevailed
in the Nov. 7 midterm elections. "I feel like a load has
been lifted from my body," former student radical and ex-California
State Senator Tom Hayden said on Nov. 9. at the University of
California at Berkeley School of Journalism. "We've just
moved out of a straightjacket," a buoyant academic commented.
A time of celebrations has
been in order. But after that, lets think about the larger picture
of the current state of the American Empire. Signs exists that
its power is declining substantially. Little in the post-election
coverage has considered this issue.
"Defeat is not an option,"
Bush again insisted in his press conference the day after his
resounding defeat, referring to the Iraq War. Yet it is precisely
defeat in Iraq that stares him in the face, as even many American
generals have admitted. This defeat is not just in Iraq, not
just of the Republican Party, not just of Bush, and not just
on Nov. 7. It goes much deeper. On Nov. 8 Bush once again attempted
to mount his Victory horse, though with a changed tone of less
arrogance.
Considerable enthusiasm swept
the nation among progressives as news came in that Democrats
won first the House and then the Senate. Then Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld was fired. This is all certainly good news. I
do not mean to rain on sunny election celebrations, but perhaps
its time to take that good energy into deeper considerations
of the state of the world and the work that remains to be done.
Much more than the loss of
the neoconservative Bush regime was revealed on Nov. 7, if one
looks beneath the surface. Some Americans may now relax, hoping
that the Democratic Party can fix things. This is not the time
to hold back and give Democrats space to get the troops out of
Iraq and remedy the many other sins of the Empire.
Now is the time to deepen our
understanding of the nation's imperial role in the world. Most
Democrats seem content to shore up American power by making a
few minor reforms, rather than attempt to manage the decline
in power that is occurring. Many describe the election as a victory
for moderate Democrats, especially the centrist Blue Dogs, over
the extreme Republicans. This will incline the Democratic Party
further to the center.
Internal and external political,
economic, and military signs exist that the American Empire is
declining. Given space limitations, this essay will focus on
Latin America. However, I want to note that the 20th Century
American Empire ran on fossil fuels. The world's supply of petroleum
and natural gas is declining, as the demand for them increases,
especially from China and India. (See www.energybulletin.net
for my writing on this.) So the U.S. is in a mad scramble to
secure its oil and gas resources. As fossil fuels decline, so
will the American Empire.
THE
IMPORTANCE OF LATIN AMERICA
My perspective comes from years
of living outside the United States and studying its impact upon
other peoples, especially in Latin America. I was raised in
the military family that gave its name to Ft. Bliss, Texas, there
on the border with Mexico. I spent part of my childhood in Panama,
where my military father was stationed. I followed him into the
services, though I resigned my commission to protest the Vietnam
War.
I studied at Ivan Illich's
Center for Intercultural Documentation, which drew teachers and
students from all over the world to Mexico. I met the Brazilian
Paolo Freire there and began working with his "cultural
action" concept. I worked in Chile during the government
of President Salvador Allende in the early 1970s. Then I spent
over a decade at Harvard University in various capacities, including
doing Post-Doctoral study, and some teaching about Latin America.
I have worked on the
ground in three of America's
primary colonies-Puerto Rico, Panama during the nationalist government
of Pres. Omar Torrijos, and more recently in Hawai'i.
These experiences lead me to
see that a sign of the weakening of the American Empire is the
lessening of its control in Latin America--the Empire's playground
for decades. A shift of power has been occurring from North
to South. In Brazil Pres. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of the Workers'
Party was re-elected for a second term on Oct. 29. Daniel Ortega
was re-elected president in Nicaragua on Nov. 5, after three
sequential defeats following his first election. These two important
events in American history received little attention in the U.S.
press, but they reveal a growing opposition to the U.S. in Latin
America.
Meanwhile, in oil-rich Venezuela
Pres. Hugo Chavez is an outspoken U.S. critic. Cuba remains a
thorn in America's side. In natural gas-rich Bolivia the indigenous
leader Evo Morales was elected President in December of 2005
by a large percentage. He works to secure his nation's natural
resources for its people, rather than having them serve the American
Empire. In Chile the government of Pres. Michellle Bachelet
has taken positions that signal independence from the U.S.
For many years, Latin American
countries have been secure neo-colonies of the United States.
Though their peoples often railed against "Yankee Imperialism,"
America continued to control their governments through a variety
of military, political, cultural, and economic means. The extreme
importance of Latin America to the U.S. is indicated by the fact
that Mexico and Venezuela are among the top five countries providing
the U.S. with oil. Mexico even provides the U.S. with more oil
than Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela is close behind, according to
figures from the Energy Information Administration published
in the Oct. 27 Christian Science Monitor.
AMERICA'S
MORTAL WOUND
The event of 2001 that stands
out the most for Americans was the unprecedented Sept. 11 attack
by a group of mainly Saudi Arabian nationals that hit the Empire's
two most powerful symbols-its financial center at the World Trade
Center and its military center at the Pentagon.
That foreign attack on the
United States was not a mortal wound to the Empire. The real
fatal blow was how the Empire struck back. Unable or unwilling
to attack the perpetrators of the 9/11 crime, the wounded Empire
struck viciously against the whole country of Afghanistan. Full
of the blood of revenge, it then attacked Iraq on spurious grounds.
Mainly innocent people perished in those attacks, as the world
watched, aghast and in disbelief and disgust, as the U.S. and
a few allies have slaughtered between 400,000 and a million people.
Such a stain on the Empire will not be easily forgotten.
So America played its military
trump card, which has not prevailed. Rather than rectify failed
strategies and tactics, it has clung to them tenaciously. The
U.S. has sunk deeper into defeat in both Afghanistan and Iraq,
thus further revealing its weaknesses. Many who oppose the U.S.
have just looked on, waiting patiently, while organizing resistance.
The U.S. is now more vulnerable to attack than it ever has been.
In neither of its last two
major wars-in Korea in the l950s and Vietnam in the l960s and
70s-did the U.S. achieve decisive victories. The U.S. lost the
Vietnam War. Many contend it also lost Korea, especially given
the current situation in the Koreas. The American Empire seems
to have reached its height of power immediately after World War
II, though in recent years--with its accumulation of wealth and
the fall of the Soviet Empire--it has appeared to be more powerful
than it really has been, what some describe as a "paper
tiger" with a "false economy" likely to collapse
at any moment.
"But what will a Democratic
Congress do that is better?" Yale scholar Immanuel Wallerstein
asked in a Nov. 5 essay on "the rude shock of defeat,"
published in the San Francisco Chronicle. "The primary problem
of the leadership of the Democratic Party is that it believes,
at least as much as the Republicans, that the United States is
the center of the world, the font of wisdom, the great defender
of world freedom." In fact, Democrats seem to want "to
restore the United States to a position of centrality in the
world system."
In l986 Gore Vidal published
"Requiem for the American Empire" in The Nation magazine.
He dated the start of the Empire as 1914, when "New York
replaced London as the world financial capitalBy the end of World
War II, we were the most powerful and least damaged of the great
nations." However, by the mid-1980s, the U.S. had become
a debtor national. Since then it has sunk even further into
debt, especially to China. "Like most modern empires,"
according to Vidal, "ours rested not so much on military
prowess as on economic power."
I deliberately do not use words
like "fall," "requiem," or "collapse"
to describe what is happening in the U.S. today, for that would
be premature. America still has considerable power and the decline
is likely to take years. Much depends upon how Americ's leaders
and people respond to the changing power alignment in the world.
More wars for oil, for example, will further erode our own limited
natural resources and any remaining goodwill with other nations.
An alternative would be to manage the decline skillfully and
take a less dominant role within the community of nations.
Though still the world's only
remaining superpower, there are many signs that the U.S. is loosing
its economic primacy. Right before the midterm elections, Bush
finally admitted that the Iraq War has indeed been a war for
oil. As the U.S. dollar continues to slide and be volatile,
there is more talk of using the Euro for the international petro-currency.
Regardless of what the Democrats
do, we should expect the Empire to decline further. The post-election
enthusiasm can be used as an opening to explore the American
soul more deeply, consider how to manage this decline, and then
take courageous actions.
Power is shifting East (as
well as South), which is why the U.S. fought in Korea, Indochina,
and now in the Middle East.
WHAT NOW?
Everything that lives dies-individuals,
planets, and even powerful empires. The American Empire is sliding
into decline; the main issue, in my opinion, is how to manage
that decline. We can squander our remaining resources and worsen
our relationships with other peoples and countries-as the U.S.
government seems intent on doing, having quickly spent the world's
post 9/11 goodwill. Or we can apply our substantial skills and
resources to collaborating with others in ways that are characterized
by humility and cooperation rather than arrogance and domination.
We have many historical examples
of how empires can fall and collapse. The warlike Mayans basically
disappeared. Rome ceased, though its remnants remain in Italy.
The Soviet Empire collapsed somewhat swiftly, though Russia
remains powerful. The British Empire is America's most immediate
ancestor. They all merit our study to understand what is happening
today. Is the soft landing of an empire even possible?
The demise of the American
Empire will have profound implications for the nation, as well
as for the world. "You're a dreamer," a close friend
and elected official responded when I suggested that perhaps
the centralized American Empire might eventually dissolve into
smaller, separate countries. Vermont already has a growing independence
movement. In Northern California there has long been talk of
seceding from Southern California. Perhaps Northern California
could join with Oregon and Washington, if they would have us,
and call ourselves something like Cascadia.
Such thinking may be premature.
But when the Soviet Empire eventually fell, it did so quite
quickly, as did the Berlin Wall in l989. When events suddenly
come to a head, much can shift. So it is prudent to do contingency
planning.
I celebrate that the Democrats
handed Bush such a decisive defeat on Nov. 7. But it is not
enough. Presumed Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has made
it clear that she will not even hear the growing chorus of voices
calling for Bush's impeachment. She is more likely to close ranks
and seek to extend the life of the Empire, given how indebted
she and her colleagues are to corporations that benefit from
the Empire's far reach. The Democrats are unlikely to see their
task as managing the Empire's decline, which will not be popular
among many Americans, who continue to benefit from the privileges
of that Empire. Before one jumps on the Democrat's bandwagon,
careful consideration of the party's intentions and actions would
be in order.
Some positive signs within
the Democratic Party are already emerging. For example, the
Progressive Caucus of the Congress--co-chaired by my own valiant
Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey and by the heroic Rep. Barbara Lee
of Berkeley--has invited former Sen. George McGovern to speak
to the 62-member Caucus next week. He will present ideas from
his new book "Out of Iraq: A Practical Plan for Withdrawal."
Withdrawal has public support from the American people and the
military itself, from enlisted men in the field up to generals
and admirals. If the Democrats do not call for a timely withdrawal
and then work hard with all the hammers and other tools now at
their disposal, that would be a bad sign.
Another early test cases for
how serious the resurgent Democrats will be is the U.S. armed
forces request of $160 billion supplemental appropriations for
the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for the remainder of the fiscal
year 2007. The request came a couple of days after the Nov.
7 election. Rep. Pelosi has already vowed not to undercut troops
in the field. The military budget of the U.S. is more than the
combined military budgets of all the world's other countries.
U.S. arms manufacturers export most of the world's weapons.
Though the Bush administration
now appears to be in decline, he was able to successfully rally
the American people for six years by appealing to their desire
to retain imperial power with its substantial privileges. The
Democrats are likely to do the same, especially when threatened.
Though in decline, the U.S. Empire will continue to wield substantial
power for years.
A perceptive writer for The
Nation, Tom Englehardt, posted "Voters Attack Bush's Empire"
on Nov. 8. He writes, "For vast majorities abroad, the
vision of the U.S. as an Outlaw Empire is nothing new."
Englehardt writes about the imperial presidency, but it is more
than the presidency. Unfortunately, this imperial posture seems
to be adopted by the Congress, as well as most Americans, who
seem to feel that we are somehow entitled to rule the world with
the American Way of Life. So a change at the top, or even in
Congress, is not likely to be enough. We need what Brazilian
Paolo Freire describes as "cultural action" to make
deeper changes in America.
But at least America finally
has one truly independent Senator, Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
It is often from the margins of smaller places, like Vermont,
that real challenges to power come. If ever there was a time
to speak truth to power, it is now, during this post-election
opening and teaching moment when at least the imperial presidency
has been set back.
America's future requires a
different kind of leadership, not just a different leader or
a different party. As one scientist, the geologist Jane Nielson
reflected, "I hope that the end of cheap energy will eventually
humble us."
And as the peace activist and
advocate for Hawaiian sovereignty Jim Albertini wrote in a flyer
for a post-election vigil on the Hawai'i Island, "Democrats,
and the American people, must now show by concrete actions, not
mere words, that we stand for a different America. Let our actions
speak clearly of a just and peaceful partner, rather than a global
bully, in an international community of equals where dialogue,
not weapons, is the method of solving problems."
Dr. Shepherd Bliss is a retired college teacher and former
officer in the U.S. Army who now farms in Northern California.
He can be reached at: sb3@pon.net
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