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Strategies & Market Trends : China Warehouse- More Than Crockery -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RealMuLan who wrote (2260)	12/26/2003 6:15:51 PM
From: RealMuLan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6370

POINT OF VIEW/ Kaname Saruya: `American empire' may be on road to decline -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The United States has perennially subscribed to its pet concept of the ``good war.'' World War II, for example, was the epitome of the good and just cause to most Americans, pitting the courageous forces of democracy against the evils of fascism and totalitarianism. Simply stated, the American public tends to view conflicts that are plainly noble and correct as ``good wars.'' The Vietnam War failed to fit this pattern, with the ``righteous cause'' waxing more and more vague and suspicious as the fighting and dying wore on. This ambiguity prompted the rise of anti-war sentiment and grass-roots protests, with the United States ultimately withdrawing from the Southeast Asian nation in virtual defeat. Three decades later, Robert S. McNamara, former U.S. secretary of defense and a key figure in the Vietnam War effort, published his memoirs of that era. McNamara candidly acknowledges the mistakes made by the U.S. government in Vietnam, in a book that offers a contrite and revisionist view of that controversial episode in American history. We wonder how things would stand now if the current administration of U.S. President George W. Bush had truly taken to heart the lessons put into print so eloquently by McNamara. Would it have still plunged into the Iraq war with a passion and willingness to acutely estrange itself from the United Nations? As the months drag on, has not the noble cause for which this campaign was first waged grown progressively murky? The United States is clearly the world's only remaining superpower, boasting premier economic and military strength. As testimony to this might, America now accounts for 40 percent of global-wide defense-related spending. Yet such dominance is also a prescription for arrogance, and the Bush administration has responded in kind. Since its inception, the words and deeds of this government have grown increasingly self-centered and perverse. Under Bush, America has rapidly projected an attitude that causes even its closest allies and friends to shake their heads. Their egotism has prevented U.S. leaders from grasping the true scale of the anti-American emotion now spreading around the world. In particular, anti-Americanism among the Arab countries has reached a level that simply cannot be ignored. The capture of deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has failed to quell this hostility, and in fact harbors the danger of escalating the resistance to greater heights. The ultimate fates of past world empires are grim at best. Rome, Britain and former superpowers that rose to global dominance eventually allowed their actions to squander the love and respect of all other countries, and gradually slid into decline. For its part, the United States has excessively meddled in the affairs of numerous countries over the years. Following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 in 2001, former President Jimmy Carter noted that the strikes woke up many Americans to the reality that the United States has come to be widely despised by many people around the world. America was once the shining source of respect and adoration from the people of the world. It is very sad, therefore, that today the United States seems resolved to becoming the world's most reviled nation. The United States is experiencing unprecedented change internally as well. In the national census of 2000, it was found that Mexicans and other Hispanics made up 12.5 percent of the entire population, African-Americans 12.3 percent and Asians 3.6 percent. Adding in other minority groups, the results indicate that minorities comprise close to 30 percent of the American public. Forecasts are that this minority share will continue to rise from here on, with the makeup of the American populace as a whole clearly changing. At present it is tough to predict what inner transformations this shift will prompt, and in which direction American society will move. I fear, however, that the current arrogant self-righteousness of the United States, which is increasingly causing the superpower to swerve from the path of international collaboration, will undermine the nation's foundation if left unchecked. There is an ominous sensation that America is taking the first arrogant step down the road to decline, following in the footsteps of so many past global empires. * * * The author is a professor emeritus at Tokyo Women's Christian University, specializing in U.S. history. He contributed this comment to The Asahi Shimbun.(IHT/Asahi: December 26,2003) (12/26) asahi.com