Even as
President Donald Trump faces ever-intensifying investigations into
the alleged connections between his top aides and family members and
powerful Russian figures, he serves as commander in chief over a U.S.
military that is killing an astonishing and growing number of
civilians. Under Trump, the U.S. is re-escalating its war in
Afghanistan, expanding its operations in Iraq and Syria, conducting
covert raids in Somalia and Yemen, and openly facilitating the
Saudi’s genocidal military destruction of Yemen.
Meanwhile,
China has quietly and rapidly expanded its influence without
deploying its military on foreign soil.
A new book
by the famed historian Alfred McCoy predicts that China is set to
surpass the influence of the U.S. globally, both militarily and
economically, by the year 2030. At that point, McCoy asserts the
United States Empire as we know it will be no more. He sees the Trump
presidency as one of the clearest byproducts of the erosion of U.S.
global dominance, but not its root cause. At the same time, he also
believes Trump may accelerate the empire’s decline.
McCoy argues
that the 2003 invasion of Iraq was the beginning of the end. McCoy is
not some chicken little. He is a serious academic. And he has guts.
During the
Vietnam war, McCoy was ambushed by CIA-backed paramilitaries as he
investigated the swelling heroin trade. The CIA tried to stop the
publication of his now classic book, “The Politics of Heroin.”
His phone was tapped, he was audited by the IRS and he was
investigated and spied on by the FBI. McCoy also wrote one of the
earliest and most prescient books on the post 9-11 CIA torture
program and he is one of the world’s foremost experts on U.S.
covert action. His new book, which will be released in September, is
called “In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and
Decline of U.S. Global Power.”
“The
American Century, proclaimed so triumphantly at the start of World
War II, may already be tattered and fading by 2025 and, except for
the finger pointing, could be over by 2030,” McCoy writes.
Imagining the real-life impact on the U.S. economy, McCoy offers a
dark prediction:
“For
the majority of Americans, the 2020s will likely be remembered as a
demoralizing decade of rising prices, stagnant wages, and fading
international competitiveness. After years of swelling deficits fed
by incessant warfare in distant lands, in 2030 the U.S. dollar
eventually loses its special status as the world’s dominant reserve
currency.
Suddenly,
there are punitive price increases for American imports ranging from
clothing to computers. And the costs for all overseas activity surges
as well, making travel for both tourists and troops prohibitive.
Unable to pay for swelling deficits by selling now-devalued Treasury
notes abroad, Washington is finally forced to slash its bloated
military budget. Under pressure at home and abroad, its forces begin
to pull back from hundreds of overseas bases to a continental
perimeter. Such a desperate move, however, comes too late.
Faced
with a fading superpower incapable of paying its bills, China, India,
Iran, Russia, and other powers provocatively challenge U.S. dominion
over the oceans, space, and cyberspace.”
McCoy's
interview at the Intercept:
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