From Pine View Farm

Decline and Fall 0

At Psychology Today, Ray B. Williams wonders whether the United States is in decline.

I know, it’s an apocalyptic question that is usually employed to support blowing up faceless, usually brown, people somewhere in the world, on the theory that decline may be blocked by piling up bodies of dead strangers in faraway places with strange-sounding names.

Williams’s take has a twist. Among others, he cites Alfred McCoy, who suggests that blowing up faceless, usually brown, people somewhere in the world is the problem, not the solution:

McCoy argues that a big contributor to the U.S.’s decline is militarism; specifically what he calls “micro-militarism,” which has plagued previous empires. These are foreign military adventures, which are not full blown “wars” that end up costing horrendous amounts of money or end in defeats. He says, as “allies worldwide begin to realign their politics to take cognizance of rising Asian powers, the cost of maintain 800 or more overseas military bases will simply become unsustainable, finally forcing a staged withdrawal on a still-unwilling Washington.”

Read the rest.

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