Meeting the Curve
From Martin LeFevre in California
The cornerstone of the short-lived and quickly crumbling
post-Cold War order is the myth of 'the sole remaining superpower.' That
exceedingly false and dangerous premise began with the fall of the Soviet Union.
In January of 1990, I traveled to the USSR to work with a man touted as a
leading example of the new type of businessman under Gorbachev's perestroika. It
was after the fall of the Berlin Wall, but before the collapse of the Soviet
Union, which appeared to me, and a group of friends and associates, like a
foregone conclusion.
Why is this relevant now? Because the Bush Administration, falling whole hog for
the illusion of 'the sole remaining superpower,' has begun priming the American
people for another war, with Iran in the cross hairs this time. The day after
coordinated threats from Rice in Paris and Bush in Washington, North Korea
reacted by declaring that it had 'nukes,' and that it would not participate in
the next round of six-party disarmament talks. The Bush Administration is
risking nuclear war.
One of my earliest formative pre-adolescent memories was of studying maps with
concentric circles of missile ranges during the Cuban Missile Crisis. At the
outer edge of the nuclear strike zone from Cuba was Detroit, Michigan, not far
from where I grew up.
After the US and the USSR came within hours of all-out nuclear war, I was
taught, at home and in school, that if Russians ever threw off the chains of
communism, Americans would help them build a market economy and new society. So,
in 1989 I naively started a joint-venture company 'to promote ethically and
ecologically sound trade between former superpower enemies.'
Our basic premise was that both superpowers were collapsing, and there would be
no winner of the Cold War. The Soviet Union was caving in economically and
politically, while the United States was crumbling morally and socially.
Needless to say, the opportunity for a genuine partnership between America and
Russia (and with it a rational world order) was lost. The triumphalism of Athe
sole remaining superpower@ quickly became accepted at home and abroad. The
United States was universally perceived to have won the Cold War, and that
misperception, more than any other factor, set in motion events leading to Gulf
Wars I and II, the Bosnian, Rwandan, and now Darfur genocides, 'the global war
on terror,' and the growing threat of war with Iran and/or North Korea.
The US lost the Cold War as certainly as the USSR, just in a different way. The
internal erosion in this country went unchecked until the death of America's
soul, which occurred with first Gulf War. That was the straw that broke the
Spirit=s back, and the people, as a whole, became inwardly dead. Now all
peoples, in all nations, are at risk.
Washington, and to a lesser degree the European Union, are two world orders
behind the curve. The post-Cold War assumptions, much less the post-World War II
assumptions, no longer pertain. A dangerous vacuum of leadership has opened up
in the world, which the autocratic Bush Administration is only too eager to
exploit.
The next major blow to the international order will not be caused by a
marginalized group of mass murderers safely ensconced in a failed state like
Afghanistan. The next shock will be a direct result of the destabilizing
policies of 'the sole remaining superpower.'
Here in the United States, the same propaganda and tactics that were
successfully employed to invade Iraq are being used to prepare a supine
citizenry for war against Iran. Rational people have presumed that the Bush
Administration would have learned a lesson from its Awar of choice@ against
Iraq, but they still believe they were right, and the scoundrels have begun
preparing a passionless public for another war.
The stable post-World War II order, as well as the fleeting post-Cold War order,
is history. Authoritarianism, even stealth authoritarianism, is not an option in
a global society. Can a true world order be prepared and arise, in Africa, from
the ashes of the old order?
martinlefevre@sbcglobal.net
The author welcomes comments.
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