[Marxism] Decline of the US?

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

The Sole Superpower in Decline
The Rise of a Multipolar World
By Dilip Hiro

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States stood 
tall -- militarily invincible, economically unrivalled, diplomatically 
uncontestable, and the dominating force on information channels 
worldwide. The next century was to be the true "American century," with 
the rest of the world molding itself in the image of the sole superpower.

Yet, with not even a decade of this century behind us, we are already 
witnessing the rise of a multipolar world in which new powers are 
challenging different aspects of American supremacy -- Russia and China 
in the forefront, with regional powers Venezuela and Iran forming the 
second rank. These emergent powers are primed to erode American 
hegemony, not confront it, singly or jointly.

How and why has the world evolved in this way so soon? The Bush 
administration's debacle in Iraq is certainly a major factor in this 
transformation, a classic example of an imperialist power, brimming with 
hubris, over-extending itself. To the relief of many -- in the U. S. and 
elsewhere -- the Iraq fiasco has demonstrated the striking limitations 
of power for the globe's highest-tech, most destructive military 
machine. In Iraq, Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser to two U.S. 
presidents, concedes in a recent op-ed, "We are being wrestled to a draw 
by opponents who are not even an organized state adversary."

The invasion and subsequent disastrous occupation of Iraq and the 
mismanaged military campaign in Afghanistan have crippled the 
credibility of the United States. The scandals at Abu Ghraib prison in 
Iraq and Guantanamo in Cuba, along with the widely publicized murders of 
Iraqi civilians in Haditha, have badly tarnished America's moral 
self-image. In the latest opinion poll, even in a secular state and 
member of NATO like Turkey, only 9% of Turks have a "favorable view" of 
the U.S. (down from 52% just five years ago).

Yet there are other explanations -- unrelated to Washington's glaring 
misadventures -- for the current transformation in international 
affairs. These include, above all, the tightening market in oil and 
natural gas, which has enhanced the power of hydrocarbon-rich nations as 
never before; the rapid economic expansion of the mega-nations China and 
India; the transformation of China into the globe's leading 
manufacturing base; and the end of the Anglo-American duopoly in 
international television news.

full: 
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174830/dilip_hiro_america_on_the_downward_slope

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