USA in the World

In recent days the presidents of arguably the three most important nations in the modern world gave addresses to the 70th annual opening of the United Nations General Assembly. Style and content of the three addresses could not have been more different. They are highly instructive of the way the three nation’s leaders perceive both their own countries and the role of their respective problems in addressing the major geopolitical issues facing the world today.

A few days ago John Hyten, the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, declared that a cyber attack that has “a significant impact” on the United States or “significantly affects the world” can be “defined as a weapons of mass destruction”. And that is why Hyten emphasized that “a large-scale attack launched from cyber space can be viewed as” a WMD.

After the current political elite in the United States made waging and preparation for conflicts on various continents the focus of their foreign policy, they are continuously searching for, in an increasingly paranoid manner, new enemies of the United States who they could declare yet another war against and not necessarily a “cold” one.

It should come as no surprise that there are many Red Herrings flying in the run up to the US presidential elections. Watching the spectrum of news outlets will bring an observer to completely different conclusions about any subject, espeically political, and leave them feeling the news outlets are actually talking about themselves, not their ostensible subjects.

US government propaganda has always done its best to convey to Americans and residents of other countries the idea that it is the richest country in the world with an advanced industry, economy and significant, well-equipped armed forces.
However, with each new day, more and more residents of the United States and many other countries are becoming disenchanted with this idea and realizing, as in Andersen’s famous fairy tale, that “the Emperor has no clothes”!

When the US announced it would be reducing the number of its troops stationed in Germany many hoped in vain it would be the beginning of an overall reduction of US forces in Europe and a deescalation of tensions between the US, NATO and the Russian Federation.
Many others, however, easily predicted these forces would simply be moved elsewhere in Europe and most likely eastward even closer to Russia’s borders and, as a result, increasing tensions.

It was seventeenth century French Dramatist Pierre Corneille who copyrighted this expression in three-hour long tragedies that are still studied by every child in the French school system. Implying ‘Damned if we do, damned if we don’t,’ it is currently being played out in Trump’s America.

Yesterday, I received a report from Syria. It told of blistering heat and no electricity, of fuel lines, of food shortages and economic suffering by the Syrian people. This is an excerpt:

It often happens this way: extreme right-wingers, or call them ‘ultra-conservatives,’ either in the United States or Europe, suddenly fall from grace, after committing the most heinous crimes. Sometimes it is child abuse or sexual harassment, but most of the time, it is a corruption of tremendous proportions.