September 11, 2018 reflections
America at a crossroads
Philippe Petit, walking between the unopened Twin Towers, in 1974
Today marks the 17th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York and DC, at the hands of bin Laden‘s Al Qaeda. It’s been said that the 20th century started in August 1914 in Sarajevo, it clearly ended on that bright and sunny September Tuesday morning. Long preserved from outside invaders by its geography, America woke up to the nefarious consequences of being subjected to effective asymmetrical warfare. It’s therefore no accident that Andrea Mitchell from NBC New reported this September 11 morning that the already peculiar attacks on US diplomats in Cuba and China were in fact state-sponsored asymmetrical warfare, Russian-style. This startling announcement by US intelligence agencies also comes a few days after the advance notice of the largest Russian military exercises ever, where China is a rare invited party. Students of the Cold War who remember the stark intra-communist conflict between Mao and the Soviet Union should be surprised.
The backdrop to the Moscow-Beijing rapprochement: China’s 40 year boom is being prolonged by the Xi regime’s Great Leap Forward via the massive Silk Road project. The central core element of the entire project is of course new pipelines from Russian oil and gas fields to China and an increased alliance to secure commodities Chinese industry needs for its growth.
American’s largest economic foe and its most potent military foe aligning their forces while “America sleeps” in the Trumpian age is also no accident. Future historians will be puzzled at how, for the first time in recorded history, America’s imperium accelerated its demise by abdicating its responsibilities in the stewardship of the global order. In a repeat of prior empires’ slow and then accelerated sunsetting, Pax Americana could come undone by a combination of military over-extension, relative economic mismanagement, but most importantly, self doubt. For all their faults (the trillions spent in Iraq will forever remain a stain), neoconservatives and hawkish Democrats maintained the postwar bipartisan policy of American engagement in the world. William Easterly’s Foreign Policy December 2016 article sums it up best, technocrats endangered democracy in America and gave Trump an edge to sit behind the Resolute Desk.
DL Hughley said some profound things in the week of Trump’s election in 2016: “Obama is who America aspires to be while Trump is who we are”. The world press is filled with coverage of American disinterest in world affairs, this conveniently forgets that the “indispensable nation” – as John McCain was fond of saying – is in fact more a continent than a country. Its extremely diverse political economic and civil cultures is sometimes forgotten because of a common language. It’s worthwhile to ask today, just as in 1787, what exactly binds a citizen of the Midwest states to a Californian or to a Floridian?
Ernest Renan spoke of the necessary “vouloir vivre” to bind nations, a fairly new concept in his 19th century. The current depressing political climate begs the question: is there any “vouloir vivre”, the will to live together for the common greater, left in an America overtired by political playacting and a blustering nincompoop at the helm?
The upcoming midterms could be a first indication of the way forward. As umair haque wrote today, the “fascist tsunami” is just receding, there’s more work to be done.
