The U.S. will not face reality about its foreign policy disasters but rather retreats to fantasy worlds that exist only in its own creativity, composes Michael Brenner.
By Michael BRENNER
When Pompey the Great made his triumphant return to Rome in 61 BCE from his sensational conquests in the East, an amazing event was prepared. Pageantry on a grand scale was created both to satisfy his outsized ego and to display exceptional status in his rivalry with Julius Caesar.
The focal point was to be a towering throne where a regally costumed Pompey would pass through a Victory arch set up for the event. A little issue arose, though, when a wedding rehearsal revealed that the throne was 4 feet taller than the height of the arch.
That is an apt metaphor for the uneasy position in which Uncle Sam discovers himself nowadays. He proudly pronounces his enduring greatness from every lectern and altar in the land and pledges to hold his standing as global Number One forever and ever. Yet, America continuously bumps its head against an unaccommodating truth.
Instead of downsizing the huge juggernaut or using itself to a delicate raising of the arch, or lowering of the throne, the U.S. makes repeated attempts to fit through in a vain effort to bend the world to its mythology. Evocation of the concussion protocol remains in order– however no one wishes to admit that sobering truth.
U.S. engagements on the planet over the past 20 years reveal a grim record of unsuccessful ventures. Most have actually been brought on by unrealistic goals, blinkered views of the field of action, overweening pride, an ignorance of foreign places and their history, and an unseemly preparedness to take contented comfort in fantasy worlds that exist only in its own imagination. In short, American diplomacy has actually been misdirected– terribly and consistently misguided.
The inevitable aggravations and failures owe equally to large incompetence. A limitless string of errors– diplomatic, military and political– is as tough for the country to reconcile with its ‘can-do’ self-image as is the admission of the glaring inconsistency between the belief in the country’s providential mission and its increasingly apparent ordinariness.
Vince Lombardi, the legendary Football coach, is frequently priced quote as stating: “Triumph is not the most crucial thing; it’s the only thing.” That has actually been an implicit American slogan from the beginning. However, in the worldwide arena over the previous generation, the U.S. has been setting records for failure and futility.
The Ever-Growing List of Debacles
1). The period started with the success of kicking out al-Qaeda from Afghanistan and toppling their Taliban hosts. It’s been downhill since, at an accelerating speed– culminating with the crack-up at Kabul airport where the obtuseness and criminal irresponsibility of the Pentagon brass (abetted by the C.I.A.’s habitually faulty intelligence) produced a human and political disaster. The Taliban are back in power thanks to American misbegotten actions in looking for the liquidation of Taliban followers who had left their company and retired to their houses in 2002, and our unbounded reliance on feuding clans of corrupt warlords.
Al-Qaeda developed from a fanatical jihadist cadre numbering in the double figures to an international conglomerate with franchises in a lots countries and a free-lance fan club operating in Western capitals. The supposed training school and brainwashing centers had no more concrete existence than did Saddam Hussein’s WMD.
Attack on U.N. headquarters in Baghdad under U.S. occupation, 2003.(U.N. Photo/Timoty Sopp)
2). The Afghan mess pales compared to the multi-dimensional catastrophe created by the Iraq invasion and profession. The scorecard:
- Hundreds of thousands dead, injured, orphaned.
- The fostering of sectarian blood-letting that institutionalises the nation’s political fragmentation.
- The enormous destruction of economic facilities.
- The welding of ties between Shi’te majority federal governments in Iraq with Iran’s clerical program (our avowed opponent– warranted or not).
- Torture and abuse in devoted camps that permanently blemished America’s cultivated image as the champion of human rights.
- The spawning of the Islamic state– developed, arranged and hired in American jail camps– Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s Camp Bucca foremost.
- The resulting trouble in Iraq and Syria with unhealthy effects across the area.
- One impact: the flood of refugees into Europe that fueled the increase of reactionary and neo-fascist movements across Europe– interrupting political life in friendly countries and weakening the EU.
- In Syria, focusing on the overthrow of Assad’s routine over the battle against the al-Qaeda affiliates who led the insurrection (a failure that is probably a success for Syria, for America and for the area).
3). Enhancing our unqualified support for Saudi Arabia under the leadership of the cocaine-addicted, megalomaniac Mohammed bin-Salman, otherwise referred to as the crown prince, thus allying ourselves with the Sunni side in the historical contest between them and their Shi’a rivals. That caused the disgraceful policy (continuing to this day) of supporting and participating in the unwarranted assault on Yemen’s Houthis which has ravaged the poorest nation in the area, ruining lives in what amounts to huge ‘war crimes.’ Yet, a State Department official just last month declared Saudi Arabia “a force for development” in the Middle East. The resulting shredding of what remains of the American pretense of being the custodian of human rights internationally has actually made risible such occasions as Joe Biden’s League of Democracies summit.
4). Similar suffering and damage caused on Somalia by American meddling and military intervention with no noticeable U.S. interest at stake.Tearing up the Iran nuclear offer– and then setting difficult, unacceptable conditions for its resurrection. Steps counter-productive whether the U.S.’s goal is foreclosing any possibility of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon or regime modification (Washington’s preferred solution).
Strategic Loss of sight
An abysmal record unequaled because the notorious efficiency of the WW I generals on the Western front– equally honored with medals and laurels.
This long list of failure and incompetence is overshadowed by the strategic blindness of dealing with Russia and China as implacable enemies. By doing so, Washington has not only obviated any alternative strategy for developing a stable, long-lasting relationship. It has likewise sealed a powerful power bloc that is now well able to object to the United States in whatever sphere it wants to cross swords with.
This mosaic of misconceived method and rampantly incompetent maneuvers strongly suggests that America’s diplomacy elites are living in a delusional world– dissociated from truth. That raises three basic concerns: 1). what are the causes?; 2). why the harmony of attitudes towards foreign affairs by the political class?; and 3). why is there so little dissent from policies that have produced a stable stream of abject obstacles?
The Roots of Misconception
Crowd at an Obama campaign rally in Des Moines, Iowa in May, 2008. (Jill Heemstra/Flickr)
Americans are struggling to draw into focus their exalted image of themselves and reality. They are not doing a great task of it. The space is large and growing. That is due in good step to what has actually been occurring beyond the nation’s coasts in addition to in your home, and over which it does not have the skills and the ways to exercise definitive influence.
The U.S. reaction has been among avoidance and reaffirmation of thought and deed. It seems to fear that looking at truth directly, will find reality staring back at it in a discomforting way.
Fading prowess is among the most difficult things for human beings to deal with– whether it be a specific or a nation. By nature, we reward our strength and proficiency; we dread decrease and its intimations of termination. This is especially so in the United States where for many the specific and the collective personality are inseparable.
No other nation tries so non-stop to live its legend as does the U.S. Today, occasions are occurring that contradict the American story of a nation with a special destiny. That produces cognitive harshness.
America’s exalted sense of self is rooted in the belief of being pace-setters and world beaters in every domain. The state of affairs sketched above– significant by impulsive business that underline America’s foredoomed, audacious aspiration to acquire global supremacy– does not represent rational strategic judgment.
It is the national equivalent of ostentatious iron-pumping by bodybuilders fretted about losing muscle tone.
Emotionally, truth is avoided with overweening confidence paired to material strength, perpetuating the national myths of a destiny to remain the world’s No. 1 forever, forming the world system according to American concepts and interests.
“No other nation tries so relentlessly to live its legend as does the U.S. Today, occasions are occurring that contradict the American story of a country with a distinct destiny.”
President Obama declaimed: “Let me tell you something. The United States of America is the most powerful country on Earth. Period. It’s not even close. Period. It’s not even close. It’s not even close!”
Is this indicated as a revelation? What is the message? To whom is it planned? Words that are neither a prelude to action nor influence others to act– nor even impart information– are simply puffs of wind. As such, they are yet another avoidance gadget– a flight from truth.
The tension connected with such a country coming across unbiased reality does not force increased self-awareness, nor a change in habits, when there is no opposition. Today, there is no diplomacy debate whatsoever.
In addition, America’s vassals in Europe and somewhere else have a nationwide interest in maintaining the warped American view of the world (Israel and Poland, for example) or have actually been so denatured over the years that they are incapable of doing anything other than follow Washington obediently– regardless of looking at a potentially fatal void with China and Russia.
Truth testing, in these scenarios, causes conformity in seeing the world through the shared delusional prism– instead of a possible restorative.
An Insecure Americanism
Americanism supplies a Unified Field Theory of self-identity, cumulative enterprise, and the Republic’s withstanding significance. When one element is felt to be in jeopardy, the integrity of the whole erection ends up being vulnerable. In the past, American folklore stimulated the country in manner ins which assisted it to flourish. Today, it is a dangerous hallucinogen that traps Americans in a time warp a growing number of remote from truth.
There is a muted reflection of this strained condition in the apparent truth thatAmericans have become an insecure individuals. They grow progressively nervous about who they are, what they are worth and what life will be like down the roadway.
This is a specific and cumulative phenomenon. They belong insofar as self-identity and self-esteem are bound up with the civic religion of Americanism. To a considerable degree, it’s resembled this considering that the very beginning.
A nation that was “born versus history” had no past to define and form the present. A country that was born against tradition had no rooted and common sense of meaning and worth that cut deeply into the nationwide psyche. A nation that was born against acquired location and position left each individual simultaneously complimentary to obtain status and obliged to do so for insignia of rank were few.
That changed throughout the 20th century. Within just a few years, America became a fantastic world power, a superpower, a champ of democracy and liberty and the defender of the West against Soviet-led communism. It was the “brave” century which culminated in the triumph of triumph in the Cold War.
After the collapse of Communism, the United States ruled the roost. In its own eyes, this distinct hyper-power had seen history validate its anointed role as both design and representative for the building and construction of a better world. American “exceptionalism” now implied emulation of America– pure and simple.
That verification must have strengthened the belief in the pageant of development. It ought to have given a boost to self-esteem. It must have compensated for the creeping insecurities connected with socio-economic-cultural changes within the United States. That has actually not shown to be the case.
Strenuous display screens of patriotism have a contrived cast to them. They suggest strained efforts to overcome doubt more than they do authentic pride and conviction. National self-confidence is not demonstrated by massive flags seen everywhere from utilized cars and truck lots to hot sheet motels, the common lapel pin, the loud and gaudy presentations of chauvinism at sporting matches, the bombast of shock jockeys, or the belittling and condescending treatment of other peoples.
Rather, those make sure indications of weakness, doubt and insecurity. The compulsive militarization of foreign relations fits the pattern; the very same psychology is at work. A society that sees truth through the screen of violent computer game is juvenile and immature.
A Dissociated Frame Of Mind
Stage-managed Bush success speech dissociated from truth of catastrophe in Iraq. (Kipp Teague/Fliickr/cropped/ 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
America is close to a condition that estimates what the psychologists call “dissociation.” It is marked by an inability to see and to accept truths as they are for deep seated psychological reasons.
It is definedas:
“Dissociation … is any of a large variety of experiences, ranging from a mild emotional detachmentfrom the immediate surroundings, to a more severe disconnection from physical and psychological experiences. The significant quality of all dissociative phenomena includes a detachment from reality, rather than a loss of reality as in psychosis. … Dissociation is typically displayed on a continuum. In moderate cases, dissociation can be considered as a coping system or defense reaction in seeking to master, lessen or endure stress — including … conflict.”
Disputes of purpose, conflict of goals, dispute of ideas, dispute between idealized truth and actual fact. Dissociative conditions are often triggered by injury (9/11?).
This psychological appraisal of the American body politic does not describe sufficiently, however, either the exaggerated reaction to a single (if particular) event confronting it with truth, or the intensity and acuteness of the delusional thinking in the absence of evidence from the real world. The unbiased truth is overwhelmed by the subjective virtual realities that shape their understanding of truth.
What do these developments predict for the United States’ relations with the rest of theworld? The most apparent and crucial implication is that Americans will be ever more dependent on preserving that sense of exceptionalism and supremacy that is the structure of their nationwide personality.
A fragile psyche, weak in self-esteem and expertise, is sensitive to signs of its decline or ordinariness. Hence, the obsession with suppressing China. For this reason, the nation will continue to exert itself energetically on the global phase rather than end up being progressively more selective in its engagements and choice of methods for satisfying them.
Continuity is a lot easier than reorientation. It doesn’t require fresh thinking and various abilities. Rather frankly, today, the caliber of high and mid-level workers would have to be updated. Less amateurism and careerism, more experience and advanced knowledge.
Similarly, a U.S. president would have to seek out people with a different frame of mind. That is to state, a more nuanced view of the world, more intense awareness of other nations’ political culture and leadership, and a skill for handling other states on a basis aside from the presumption of American supremacy and authority.
Attempts to dictate the internal affairs of foreign nations would become the rare exception rather than the norm. Moreover, it is needed to loosen up the hold on the country’s mind of dogmatic concepts as deeply rooted in the American experience as they are out of synch with today’s world.
All of this is a tall order. It appears to be beyond America.