The Decline vs. Whiners

After President Bush's whirlwind tour of Europe, it got me thinking about the health of America's influence on the world stage since Bush came to power.

This administration has divided once staunch allies, went in virtually alone without the critical international support and approval and created the modern day debacle that is Iraq. In the eyes of the world community America's reputation has diminished and it has created differences between allies. We see the effects of this today with the EU's lifting of China's arms ban, their diplomatic approach to Iran and Russia selling nuclear material to Iran. Bush's tour already looks like it has been unsuccessful and the European nations are no longer filing behind America and towing the line.

Europe is now taking a different path than America and on the world stage is defining it's own role. China is an increasingly growing in economic power and it's military capabilities have exponentially improved over the last 15 years, soon it will be strong enough to take on Taiwan. The Bush Administrations sabre rattling is only making things worse and China will only continue to invest even more into improving their military capability which inturn will greatly increase their influence and power in the entire region.

The Bush Administration's rhetoric of the 'axis of evil' has contributed to the supposed development of nuclear weapons in the Korean peninsula and in Iran, which could spark off a global arms race in the entire Asian continent and may make the NPT worthless.

Today we see that the Bush Administration is eying Iran with Bush's "all options are on the table" and unmanned drone's already probing defenses and it's recent rhetoric and exploitation of what has happened in Lebanon to vilify Syria in the world communities eyes so that it may overthrow the government.

The US military is already overstretched and has no near term exit strategy for Iraq, yet the Bush Administration continues to eye it's neighbors as potential targets, risking creating a massive insurgent triangle.

Economically, the US budget deficit is running into the hundreds of billions while in 2000 it was at a healthy 200 billion surplus. National government debt is at around $8 trillion, the highest in the world and total domestic debt is at approximately $37 trillion. There is a huge trade deficit and China is doing extremely well in the US. The dream run of the 90s and the Clinton Administration's fiscal conservatism have all but been thrown out the window with the Bush Administrations policy of cutting taxes while making the government bigger. The US dollar has lost major ground and has lost much confidence and many commodities and nations are changing to the Euro.

Politically, there seems to be a wishing among the populace for the 'old days' as grass roots conservatives have gained considerable popularity among the American populace. The 2000 election debacle was a sign that all was not well in America's democracy. Non-mandatory voting has made a minority of the nation decide who runs the nation.

Deregulation of the US media has put the hands of the press into the hands of a few corporate giants under the 'veil' of a "free" press. Each giant promotes it's own political and corporate agenda and news stories are skewed and censorship is becoming commonplace for stories that hurt the corporations bottom line. We live in a world today where the state-run media stations by the Industrialized west are the one's who have reporters who's hands are not tied.

All these conclusions I have come to from what I have seen and gathered lately make me believe that we are seeing the decline of America as the global superpower and as the leader of the Western World. I believe the Bush Administration is the major cause of this, as what has seemingly happened is that the PNAC (Project For A New American Century) Agenda (invade Iraq, exploit a Pearl Harbor type event to get the support of a more pro-active role in preserving America's superpower status) has actually been the first nails in the coffin of the American hegemony and the return of the bipolar world or even a tripolar world.

So my question is to you : Do you think America is in decline?? Do you think we are witnessing the beginnings of the end of American Hegemony?

I hope to see responses from all sides of the fence, from all over the world and from Conservatives and Socialists alike.

This post from Is America in decline?

See too, Anxious In America