America Lost The Global War On Terror

Over Two Decades Later, Bankruptcy Looms & The Long Decline Continues...

The Collapse of U.S. Military Hegemony: A scene where U.S. military bases across the Middle East and Central Asia are abandoned, with once-dominant American flags tattered and fading in the wind. Locals are seen reclaiming the land around the base, symbolizing the end of U.S. military dominance in the region. In the distance, crumbling drones and fighter jets are scattered across a barren desert, signifying the collapse of America’s once-unchallenged global power projection. The mood of the scene is somber, with the realization that after decades of warfare, the U.S. has not only lost the war but also its influence in key geopolitical regions.

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“The Islamic Nation that was able to dismiss and destroy the previous evil Empires like yourself; the Nation that rejects your attacks, wishes to remove your evils, and is prepared to fight you. You are well aware that the Islamic Nation, from the very core of its soul, despises your haughtiness and arrogance.

If the Americans refuse to listen to our advice and the goodness, guidance and righteousness that we call them to, then be aware that you will lose this Crusade Bush began, just like the other previous Crusades in which you were humiliated by the hands of the Mujahideen, fleeing to your home in great silence and disgrace. If the Americans do not respond, then their fate will be that of the Soviets who fled from Afghanistan to deal with their military defeat, political breakup, ideological downfall, and economic bankruptcy.

This is our message to the Americans, as an answer to theirs. Do they now know why we fight them and over which form of ignorance, by the permission of Allah, we shall be victorious?”

~ Osama Bin Laden, closing excerpts from ‘Letter To America,’ English Translation published on November 24, 2002.

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23 Years Ago, The Twin Towers came crashing down.

The 21st century began in earnest that day, as over 2,500 Americans perished.

Regardless of what one believes about ‘what *really* happened that day,’ what is undeniable is that the World Order fundamentally shifted from that point onward:

After the Soviet implosion of 1991, the ensuing Unipolar moment & Fukuyama's 'End Of History,¹' many had predicted a relatively quiet start to the New Millenium with America & the Global World Order largely intact & flourishing.

History did not, however, end on December 25, 1991:

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The wars continued as Global Liberalism (now the sole ideology & ‘World System’ left standing) claimed Hegemony over the planet in both word & deed:

America’s interventionist wars accelerated & all pretenses made regarding a New ‘Peace Dividend’ evaporated as Mark Antony’s ‘Cry Havoc & Let Slip The Dogs of War!’ became the Modus Operandi of Unipolar America.

Charles Krauthammer, writing for Foreign Affairs Magazine in 1990, noted that we were witnessing the tiny Interlude known as ‘The Unipolar Moment,²’ that brief pause after which Multipolarity would soon ascend. 

Krauthammer, to his credit, correctly identified that what America could expect in the coming years would be a twofold challenge to the Liberal, Democratic ‘internationalist consensus,’ which America & its Western allies had inherited post the Soviet collapse:

Firstly, there would be ‘Conservative Isolationists’ who in Krauthammer’s time would have been Ross Perot et al., & in today’s climate, these would be the Nationalists & ‘America First!’ wing of Trump Republicans, now vying once more for power.

Secondly, there would be ‘small aggressive states armed with weapons of mass destruction & the means to deliver them.’ These ‘Weapon States’ would be (in Krauthammer’s words) the primary threat to the Liberal, ‘internationalist consensus.’

Over the next decade (i.e., 1990 to 1999), the original ‘Axis of Evil’ (namely Iran, Iraq & North Korea) worked tirelessly to garner the requisite means to defend themselves against American Global Hegemony:

North Korea, the most isolated of the three, gained access to Pakistani Nuclear technology sometime in the early 1990s.³

Iraq, ravaged by the one-sided Gulf War of 1990-91 by America & its vassals, spent most of the decade recouping its losses & trying to hold together a nation with a Shia majority using a Sunni minority government.

Iran, the largest & most formidable of the trio, spent said decade relatively isolated, recovering from the devastating Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88:

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Prima Facie, excluding the DPRK, it appeared there wasn’t much to be worried about:

Russia was experiencing a ‘Lost Decade,’ with the Soviet implosion devastating the economy & broader society in a myriad of ways.⁴

Japan, once touted as a genuine competitor to the Colossus of American Economic & Cultural Hegemony, was itself going through a ‘Lost Decade’ as Economic Stagnation set in alongside a rapidly Aging, High Dependency-ratio Elderly Population.⁵

China, today an Economic Behemoth that surpasses the Americans on nearly all metrics of the Real, Physical Economy, was still in its growth phase, steadily building up wealth, but nowhere near America’s heights.⁶

& so a curious development took place within the Halls of American Power:

Victory had come to the Young Nation, but far too quickly.⁷

Well, at least that’s how Paul Wolfowitz saw the matter. The Deputy Secretary of Defense was one of the few back then to realize that ‘easy victories’ in the Gulf War & related engagements were not a positive development in the grand scheme of things:

For they gave America the illusion of triumph in a world that Krauthammer et al. correctly noted was far from accepting the Liberal, ‘internationalist consensus.’

In a 1992 draft of the American ‘Defense Planning Guidance,’⁸Wolfowitz thus formulated bluntly what is today dubbed by many as The Wolfowitz Doctrine, a naked declaration of American unilateralism on the international arena:

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“Our first objective is to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival. This is a dominant consideration underlying the new regional defense strategy and requires that we endeavor to prevent any hostile power from dominating a region whose resources would, under consolidated control, be sufficient to generate global power. These regions include Western Europe, East Asia, the territory of the former Soviet Union, and Southwest Asia.”

"There are three additional aspects to this objective: First the U.S must show the leadership necessary to establish and protect a new order that holds the promise of convincing potential competitors that they need not aspire to a greater role or pursue a more aggressive posture to protect their legitimate interests. Second, in the non-defense areas, we must account sufficiently for the interests of the advanced industrial nations to discourage them from challenging our leadership or seeking to overturn the established political and economic order. Finally, we must maintain the mechanisms for deterring potential competitors from even aspiring to a larger regional or global role."

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Unfortunately for him ( & others! ) who were Gung-Ho for American Pre-eminence & its preservation via the barrel of the gun, things were a tad more complicated:

You see, Dear Readers & Listeners, The Cold War was not ‘won’ by the Americans.⁹ The last Ambassador to the USSR, Jack Matlock, ardently emphasized this:

Both sides negotiated a settlement to end the conflict in 1989. Afterward, 1991 saw the culmination of sundry nationalist & populist movements inside the USSR, which ultimately balkanized the polity into Russia & other successor states.

Yet, the mythology of an ‘American Victory’ persists even today, chiefly due to it being politically expedient to do so. Thus, for much of the decade of the 1990s, America’s leadership & ‘Elite’ ran with said story, too hubristic & arrogant to see the obvious:

America’s enemies were biding their time, building their arsenals & training their forces. Sub-state actors, long ridiculed by U.S. Intelligence as nothing more than ‘bandits, warlords & mercenaries,’ would soon make their presence felt…

History had not ended. Worse still, it would come back with a brutal Nemesis, as American Global Hegemony would soon be challenged outright…