I have been having a running debate and sporadic e-mail dialogue with Fred Hiatt of the Washington Post and have found him at least willing to listen to opinions.
Here is a copy of the most recent letter I sent him:
Dear Mr Hiatt:
I have written you before. Some notes have been more strident than others.
This is more of a plea. I know it must be easy for the Post and other media to be jaundiced, sophisticated, cynical and whatever else one becomes when one must report on the US. There has been much coverage of the election, but very little of real substance. One issue that must be addressed is the current US quest for empire and its likely effects and what it will really mean to the US and the world. I am asking you to do
some intelligent and in depth coverage of this, while you still can.
In the case of the neo-con driven drive to empire, its likely result will be the destruction of the US - by definition it will kill the Republic, but will also likely lead to the degradation of the US. One only need look at the fate of all prior empires from Egypt to Rome to China to the British Empire to Nazi Germany. All ended up destroying the states that gave them birth. The history of each has long been documented, but the end result has been the devolution of each to a state that represents much less than what each started with.
Egypt has never recovered, Rome has vanished and Italy is a very poor substitute. China has struggled for centuries to come back. England is at best a second tier country, dependent upon American largesse and good will. Germany of course, has had some resurrection, but is not anywhere what it could have been.
The likely result of the quest for an American empire will be the establishment of a military police state in the US, probably not as malignant as Nazi Germany, but likely not as benign as Victorian England. Another likely result will be constant wars with all the stress that entails. This includes the peculiar type
of economic stagnation that occurs in military states, extemes in the distribution of income, increased public indebtedness, the loss of most of our freedoms, increasing poverty, social unrest and the splitting of the US into regional centers and possilby into separate nations. This is not as extreme as it may sound. It is the logical result of empire as has been documented in every instance in world history.
It is only our hubris that prevents us from seeing this. The end result is not up for debate, if we continue on our current quest.
The real issue now is how long it might take.
Given the compression of time in the modern world and the existence of very strong forces
that will oppose us the American empire will collapse in a matter of years. The compression of time in the modern world, due to improved transportation, computers and other technological advances means that what once took years to accomplish and to undo can occur now in weeks. That is, a modern empire will be very short lived compared to the past ones. One only need look at the time lines from the examples I cited earlier. As technology has advanced, the lifespan of each empire has decreased from millennia in the Egyptian and Chinese examples to centuries in the Roman and British cases to a mere decade in the German instance. There is no reason to believe that the US would fare any better than the Germans in terms of the ifespan. Our enemies will grow and are already stronger
than we would like to believe. They will be able to take action against us quicker than possible in the past; technology will evolve rapidly and they will be able to move against in ways that we barely imagine today.
The world has not stood still while the US has been caught up in the neo-con agenda. There are now many strong forces that not only will oppose us but will also have the capability to do so. This includes the several hundred million Muslims that we have alienated by our heavy handed attacks in Iraq and blind support for Israel. Most of whom would welcome the death of the US. It also includes the EU that has
emerged much more rapidly than most of our visionaries imagined. Its GDP now eclipses ours; it has more people and with the exception of one or two states is afraid of us. China is on the horizon and has emerged to the point that we have much less influence and mobility in Asia than we had 10 years ago. It will suck more and
more investment from the US. India is also on the move and has already taken much technological and financial investment from us. I could go on, but this is a letter, not a treatise.
Technologically these other entities have eclipsed us. Advances in all areas, except possibly methods of killing, are made more and more in other parts of the world. One only need to go to Shanghai, Tokyo, Singapore, Berlin or Paris to see how backwards most US technology is compared to the rest of the world. Most of these places have electronics that the US only gets as a second or third choice - somewhere after
Europe but before Australia. Even in weapon systems, most of the electronics and advanced composites have been produced overseas for years. I was a deputy program manager on a military program 15 to 20 years ago and saw the electronics come from Hitachi, the composites come from England and the robotics come from Germany even then. The situation has worsened today to the point that surprisingly little advanced manufacturing is done in the US today. Much of what is done is owned by foreign companies.
So what do we now have? An administration hell bent on domination and policy makers from the AEI and other assorted neo-con imperialist organizations. Enemies with the will to fight us at every stop. Enemies who have quietly coalesced power, wealth and influence while we engaged in our fantasies of global hegemony. A jaded populace of which a large percentage is
sitting around waiting for the rapture and another large percentage is out "clubbing." A media that has rolled over, probably purely for profits. And an administration whose only response is to clamp down on civil liberties, incur more debt and to attempt to expand hegemony further. And to needlessly kill men, women and children in countries which have have done us no harm. It is not just Iraq. Look at our sorry recent history in Latin America, Asia and the rest of the Middle East. We have to stop this reckless desire for empire or we will fail and we will meet the fate of our imperial predecessors.
The ensuing collapse will happen much more quickly than most envisage.
Perhaps some insighful reporting and analysis from the mainstream media would help, but that probably will not happen.
Best regards,
Nelson Skinner