Decline and fall of the American empire

Steve Clemons writes:

What many Americans fail to understand, is that George W. Bush's swaggering pugnaciousness and invasion of Iraq justified by the president with contrived and false excuses made much of the world very, very angry with us. That anger has been measured by the well known Pew Global Attitudes Project but by others as well.
While Bush scoffed at this global reaction, it has since hardened into power strategies -- and global leaders know that they can achieve greater legitimacy at home now by thwarting American preferences -- like in the latest UN sanctions against Iran.
American diplomacy needs to take this into account. Everything we want in the world is more expensive now -- not only because of a weakened dollar -- but because of our deteriorating political position and the anger that so many have at this country and our president.
But we do need to win some battles, or at least put things on hold, until there is someone in the White House who can begin turning around the tattered state of America's foreign policy position.

What Steve Clemons fails to understand --or perhaps just doesn't want to mention because its too upsetting -- is that the rest of the world is not going to wait around for the United States to take over again.
Nobody is going to let Commander Coo-coo Bananas and President Cheney "win some battles". Nor is the world going to "put things on hold" waiting for the American electorate to come to its senses and vote in a president who isn't a warmongering moron.
Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt.
We waited for the American people to come to their senses in 2004.
They didn't.
And we have no guarantees for 2008 either.
It was really all mostly smoke and mirrors anyway -- all the stuff about how America was the shining city on the hill, the world's only superpower with the world's best military and the world's greatest democracy, and the president was the world's natural leader. It's really only been since FDR that America took on this reputation for world leadership anyway -- Woodrow Wilson was an oddball exception, but Theodore Roosevelt, Taft, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover were happy enough to let Europe entangle itself in Africa and Asia and the Middle East; they wanted America to remain aloof and independent.
After World War II and during the Cold War, FDR, Eisenhower and Kennedy really did seem to think the US could run the world. But since Vietnam, American presidents had realized that American exceptionalism was more myth than reality.
In reality, America was actually more like The Emerald City, and the President was more like the Wizard of Oz -- hiding a Rube Goldberg machine behind the curtain, pushing and pulling levers and setting off fireworks and puffs of smoke, making unearthly groaning noises and calliope music.
It was a useful myth while it lasted, valuable at keeping everybody else in line, particularly after the Cold War ended -- nobody dared challenge the US because, after all, it might be true. So the nations of the world continued to tip their hats to the American president.
Now the world has watched as America elected a meglomaniac ignoramus as President. Twice. Who has demonstrated that the American military is apparently still incapable of winning a war against a bunch of teenagers making bombs in their basements.
We've all seen that behind a curtain is just a deeply flawed man who doesn't know what he is doing.
So now the world is shaking itself loose from the American myth.
Maybe this will turn out to be good for the world, when everyone has to stand on their own.
Or maybe not.
But either way, the world won't go back.
The American empire has fallen and it can't get up.

Great photo of the day

In this great AP photo by Jeff Topping, we see Booger the dog, Kitty the cat, and Mousie the mouse, all waiting outside an Arizona restaurant for their owner.

Stepping up

Following up on this story from two weeks ago about the terrible conditions at Pikangikum, I'm happy to note that the Guelph Tribune reports the Rotary Club of Wellington South has donated $12,000 to provide a reverse osmosis water purification system for the school.
At least its a start.
And I missed this at the time, but the federal Conservatives are acting to repeal a section of the Indian Act which prevents Aboriginal people from making discrimination complaints against band councils and the federal government. Some Aboriginal leaders are afraid of the potential impact on band councils. But it sounds to me like this change in long overdue and I applaud it:

Grand Chief Stan Beardy of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, a political group representing 49 First Nations across Ontario, hopes the bill may ultimately bring relief to people living in the kind of squalor most Canadians can only imagine.
His communities include Pikangikum, 250 kilometres north of Kenora, where most homes have no running water.
“In many areas there are minimum standards of what is acceptable and what isn't,” Mr. Beardy said. “And it's only recently that my young people have started to put pressure to make sure that those same rights are afforded to them.
“I think they'll demand that they have access to universal rights like everybody else.”

You know, whenever we are extenting human rights to a group that doesn't have them yet, we are told the same things -- that we can't do it, we mustn't rush, we need more time, society just isn't ready, and besides, we can't afford it.
Well, tough. We've got to do it anyway.
At least its a start.

Bush tries The Martingale

There's a betting system called The Martingale that if you lose, you wager double the next time and the next time and the next time, until eventually you win and so get all your losses back.
Sounds like a plan -- after all, you're bound to win eventually, aren't you?
It is the Gambler's Fallacy to think that you're ever due to win any time, no matter how many in a row you 've lost - cards have no memory and neither does the roulette wheel. After doubling your bet a few times, you are risking a huge amount of money against a miniscule benefit -- even if you do win, all you have is your first investment back.
But the Bush administration appears bound and determined to try a Martingale in the Middle East -- either by escalating the war in Iraq, or widening it to Iran, or both.
They're playing Viva Las Vegas with real people's lives. The Martingale doesn't turn losers into winners, it only makes bigger losers.

Great line of the day

From Attytood via Today in Iraq:

. . . it all gets intellectually tangled when you try to compare a one-day terrorist attack, which deliberately targeted civilians in a way that any civilized human should find repulsive, with three and a half years of combat and collateral damage.
Tangled -- and yet I do believe in my gut that the killing fields in Iraq flow directly from the senseless violence of 9/11, and so I believe that stories and blog posts that compare the death tolls are worthwhile -- because for one day they make us think, a little harder and a little more out loud than usual, what Americans should be thinking every single day.
Just what in God's name are we doing over there?

Emphasis mine.

Stick with Canada

Reading about war on today of all days, one thought occured to me -- America should stay out of any war that Canada doesn't want to fight.
Look at the record-
WWI, WWII, Korea, Gulf War, Kosovo: Canada supported, and the allies, including America, won.
Vietnam, Iraq: Canada did not support, and America lost
Afghanistan: Still a toss-up.
But if Canada pulls out, it's likely safe to assume that America will lose that one, too.

John Williams conducts Handel's Messiah

A number of years ago I participated in a "sing-along" Messiah -- great fun and a great Christmas experience.

Claymation "We three kings"

Claymation "Angels we have heard on high"

Claymation "Carol of the Bells"

David Bowie and Bing Crosby

singing together in one of the most unique Christmas specials ever made.

Great line of the day

Speaking for everyone who has ever had to work with the public, hairy fish nuts says:

I love all my clients and not just because they pay me but because they're human and that means one day they'll die.

And ya just gotta love anonomyous blogging, too.

Rhetorical bullets

Our Steven, another Profile in Courage:

Harper told a Calgary-based radio program that the United Nations and the entire international community want Canadian troops in the war-torn country. And he said the soldiers still believe in the mission. "If they're willing to take the real bullets, we can take the rhetorical bullets back here at home," Harper said.

Meanwhile, Canada's own General Hillier is firing a few of those rhetorical bullets himself, making statements about how he is apparently shivering at the prospect of another federal election. God forbid, I guess, that the Canadian people might vote this time based on their feelings about our Afghanistan adventure.

I read the news today, oh boy

What a balls-up this turned into. The player was kicked off the hockey team for not signing a Canadian flag, but now he says he never intended not to sign it. Now the coach has been suspended for kicking the player off the team and for making rude remarks about him. But the league commissioner now says the player was suspended for his poor performance on ice -- apparently he's not actually the team's top scorer, he's only tied for that title. It all makes perfect sense, doesn't it. But here's the kicker:

The Sea Dogs are last place in the east division.

And no wonder.

And another front has opened in the War on Christmas, this time in Ontario's courts. Of course Justice Cohen shouldn't have made such a dumb ruling, but everyone else needs to just chill out -- remember "peace on earth and goodwill to men"?

Why does Bush act like it was someone else's idea to send 20,000 or 30,000 or 40,000 more troops to Iraq? Now he's reassuring everyone that of course he couldn't possibly do it "unless they have a specific mission".
I don't think "win the war" is specific enough, George.

Apropos, The Onion reports "Thousands More Dead in Continuing Iraq Victory".

BAG News Notes has an interesting take on how Hezbollah is spinning its image in Lebanon. This is a website I don't read often enough -- it analyzes the sub-text behind news photos, demonstrating how they are easily worth a thousand words.

Loyalty to a culture

For the story behind these treasures and the personal courage which saved them -- a true story more fascinating than any Indiana Jones movie ever made -- read Galloping Beaver's The Keyholders of Afghanistan and follow the links at the end.