Powered By Blogger

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Why has the United States given itself so much authority?

Thursday, April 22, 2014
My good friends, it is beyond doubt that the United States is powerful just because of how it conducts its affairs to suggest that it has the economic and military clout to determine the ebb-and-flow of world politics.
After luring the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) on a wild arms race that ended in its favour for it to emerge as the only so-called super-power, it has dictated terms all these years and portrayed itself as the Godfather of all systems in this universe.
Its democracy is centuries old and admired for whatever it may mean to those who regard it as the "Father of Democracy" or anything else, depending on which side of the coin is seen and used for the assessment of credentials.

But it irks me a lot when the US stomps the globe to behave as if it is the be-it-all-and-end-it-all for humanity. Can't these ethnocentric US people ever know that other people on the globe have their right to do things as they wish? Or that they don't sit down to be spoon-fed on how to live their lives?
Before you jump on me, consider the basis for my worries:
"US Secretary of State John Kerry has said that impatience with the Venezuelan government is growing across the region over its failure to address the country's serious political crisis."
(Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-27513752)
The US is impatient over how Venezuela handles its internal affairs? Why so?
I am not interested in going through any hoop regarding the US' foreign policy and all that it entails; but I  will be eager to know why the US feels/thinks that its preferences should be the "fait accompli" for other systems!!
In all that it does, the US seems not to know its own history and how to use it to do better politics than what it has done so far.
Deceived that its brand of democracy is the ideal one for humanity, it is doing all it can, expending resources to export that brand of democracy anywhere in the world that it sets its yees on.
In rather befuddling circumstances, it has tried it in Iraq and Libya. Daily reports from those countries prove it wrong. Rather interestingly, it hasn't commented on happenings there. All that happened in Benghazi to precipitate the assassination of its Ambassador Stephens and the torching of its Embassy seems to be blamed on administrative lapses for which Hillary Clinton is being blamed.
Now, the situation in Libya is worse than turbulent. The US has maintained a guarded silence for fear of being taken to task.
No one ever wants to suggest that all the troubles in the world are attributable to the US' bulldozing habits; but the truth is that the US is indeed a bulldozer!!
It has done so and will continue to do so. It can't do without it because that is how its military-industrial complex survives!!
If you doubt it, just look at the happenings in Ukraine and you should see how the US is paying the piper (the member countries of the EU that it is manipulating to undermine Russia).
Beyond it all is the reality that threatens the US itself. China is rising to world dominance just because it is economically, militarily, politically,. and ideologically capable of taking over from the US by the end of this year (the pundits have been struggling to tell the world when specifically it will happen, having had to scale their prediction down from 2025 to 205 and now 2014)!!
And it is a reality that cannot be shunned or disputed. The US knows how much of its debt is being soaked up by China and how much of the consumable items come from China.
Friends, we in Ghana have a common saying that when one already knows someone inside out, he doesn't need to light a lamp/lantern at night to re-know that someone when he calls or falls within the field of visions!!
But the truth that the US needs to know seems to disarm it. What we see now is a pretentious and hypocritical posture to deflect attention from reality. It won't salve its conscience or save it from the impending doom. Empires rise and fall; when they fall, they don't rise back. Others emerge from their ashes!!
The great British Empire fell (even with its brand of English) to the United States. The US has all these years enjoyed the perks of that limelight; unfortunately, the objective reality of the situation indicates that its sun is setting.
The setting of the sun began under George Bush the Second and has steadily continued under Obama. Can the US and its people and allies see that reality and stop pretending? I don't know!!
I shall return…
·         E-mail: mjbokor@yahoo.com
·         Join me on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/mjkbokor to continue the conversation.

No comments:

Post a Comment