Gabriel Kolko, Counterpunch, December 17
(The article starts with a killer headline: “Defeated in Iraq, Bankrupt at Home, Despised Around the Globe (And That’s Just the Good News”):
“The world is escaping American control, and Soviet prudence no longer inhibits many movements and nations. World opposition is becoming decentralized to a much greater extent and the US is less than ever able to control it – although it may go financially bankrupt and break up its alliances in the process of seeking to be hegemonic.
“This is cause for a certain optimism, based on a realistic assessment of the balance-of-power in the world. I think we must avoid the pessimism-optimism trap but be realistic. Although the Americans are very destructive, they are also losing wars and wrecking themselves economically and politically. But for a century the world has fought wars, and while the US has been the leading power by far-in making wars since 1946, it has no monopoly on folly.”