Tunnel Vision

We cannot seem to help ourselves.

We get bogged down in a strange middle eastern land that we don’t understand and we don’t know how to get out. We’ve been there far longer than it took us to beat Hitler and Tojo…and even now we see no way out.

It seems in the rush to bring democracy to Iraq, we’ve not only lost our precious youth while squandering 1 trillion dollars for what? Not even the Pentagon auditors can figure that one out.

But equally importantly, and perhaps of long term concern, is that we’ve lost sight of what’s happening in the rest of the world.

It seems as if we have fallen prey to the sins of both omission and commission.

This crazy ride to nowhere, led and orchestrated by a bunch of men with a strange view of the world, called Neocons, who managed to screw up not only Iraq, Afghanistan and everything else they touch, seem to see what they want to see. And, mostly, it’s profoundly self-serving and fundamentally wrong.

What we’ve missed is the obvious: The overwhelming shift of power from West to East. How we managed to do that is yet another story which will unfold as one or another drift away from a White House confounded by its own profound sense of “rightness” and confused with a real world that refuses to do its bidding like a spoiled kid who leaves the game with the bat and ball if you don’t play by “his” rules.

Their disconnect that puts us all at odds with the rest of the world may not seem like much but when you analyze it, you become aware that our White House has cooked up a prescription for disaster.

Our narrowness of vision, increasing indifference to the rest of the world, our failure to build a democratic base in Iraq—a dumb idea to begin with—and our bungling and bullying towards Iran has not gone unnoticed.

This inner directed view that keeps government on the wrong track and contributes to a growing litany of failures around the world would have perhaps been wiser spent in looking outside ourselves and our self-centered penchant for aggrandizement at everyone else’s expense. We, then, might have observed something that might be interpreted as disturbing at best: The emerging Super-powers are talking and their talks are excluding the West.

China is talking to Japan, it’s oldest enemy.

And Russia is talking to China about America’s involvement in ringing Russia with a necklace of high tech weaponry.

Such tactics are flawed strategically and can only lead to a growing counterweight to US power. (It seems we’ve forgotten that Russia still has more than 10,000 ageing nuclear weapons in its arsenal.)

In the meantime, we bleed revenue that could be better applied to things like education, science and technology programs that could reinvigorate not only our economy, but help us regain respect in the world.

It won’t happen under this mental midget who is deluded enough to think he is right on everything. But the real joke is on us, because we have followed his myopic perspective for the last eight years.

Meanwhile, the actions by the emerging super-powers goes on and we either blow it off or ignore it. Our Secretary of State does not believe in using diplomacy and mostly can only say, “no.” While Cheney pushes us into further alienation with his Evil Empire rants issued from the safety of his basement headquarters somewhere in the bowels of the Earth.

These are not minor gaffs; these countries recognize that the West is disconnected from the rest of the world; that no one is impressed with our might any longer; and that about all that we have left is geography that they mostly own now.

Nor does their perceptions auger well for future peaceful relations.

Although there is no proof of it, it is suggested that Iran may be Russia’s “stalking horse” to see how far they can push us around and get away with it.

That remains to be seen.

What must be realized is that this is not just a game, it’s a reorienting of world powers cognizant of the fact that the balance of power is shifting and that the world has become a much more dangerous place with the West becoming increasingly irrelevant. The next time, don’t be surprised if the Saudis start entertaining the Russians.


Les Aaron