QOTD: America's International Downfall

 

Ryan Cooper, writing in The American Prospect, looks at the incalculable damage the vengeful Malignant Fascist and juvenile megalomaniac President Elon "Harry Bolz" Musk are doing to the U.S's position abroad. A selective excerpt, so be sure to read the entire article:

"A month into the second Trump administration, I think it is fair to conclude that the American empire in its current form is collapsing. The post-1945 global order, with the United States at its apex, is no more. America itself is not going anywhere—at least not yet—but the foundation of the empire, namely its structure of alliances and partnerships, has been dealt irreparable damage. Western Europe, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and especially Canada now view America with suspicion if not outright hostility, and they are right to do so.

Now, the history of empires is the story of their rise and inevitable fall. As Herodotus wrote about Greek city-states, 'most of those which were great once are small today; and those which used to be small were great in my own time.' But nobody has matched this current downfall for sheer egregious stupidity. [snip]

Trumpism strikes directly at the heart of American power projection: trust. NATO members and other partners go along with the American-led order because it has been a pretty good deal, all things considered. Rather than exacting imperial tribute, Europe, Japan, South Korea, and the others were encouraged to develop and become rich. In return, they allowed the U.S. to develop overwhelming military dominance, and played along with our control over the global financial system.

Threatening unprovoked war on a NATO ally for no reason destroys this trust—indeed, it makes clear that America is now a rogue state, led by erratic, violent madmen. Even Hitler felt he had to make up some lying pretext about German minorities being oppressed before he stole the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia. Trump just saw a map and thought, 'I’ll have that.'” (our emphasis)

The Malignant Fascist's enduring, adolescent worship of Russian thug and war criminal Vladimir Putin, probably based on Putin's promise of riches for his furtherance of Russia's ambitions, and the Malignant Fascist's envious desire to have Putin's authoritarian power, is destroying decades of alliances and foreign friendships that won't be repaired easily, if ever again. The Kremlin's long-term cultivation of the Malignant Fascist is paying off dramatically.  It's made the U.S. a subsidiary of the Russian government.

(image: Petras Malukas/AFP/Getty Images)