US on retreat-mode

 For the USA, the 20th anniversary of 9/11 on September 11, 2021 was a reminder of the horrific terror attacks in its soil and also the mess of the unforgiving 20 years war in Afghanistan. In the aftermath of 9/11 the US set out to mete out justice on a global scale. The enemy was not a rival hegemonic power, but an amorphous concept (“terror”) that American leadership linked to both a web of Islamist extremists and adversarial autocratic regimes. The results were the costly invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, the massive expansion of the U.S. security state, and a new global awareness of the limits -rather than the potency – of American power. Fact is that 9/11 was hatched and funded by the USA’s closest ally, Saudi Arabia. It happened because Americans failed to act on tips passed on to the over-rated US intelligence agencies. The Islamic terrorists exploited the freedom and opportunity provided by the American system and humiliated the USA by obliterating the fames twin towers. In retaliation, invaded Afghanistan in 2001 in pursuit of the ‘war on terror’. Then in 2003 the US also invaded Iraq and overthrew Saddam Hussein. The war on terror in Iraq ended in 2011 after the US withdrew but left the region more unsafe as ISIS eventually rose to become a grave threat. The same fate befell Afghanistan where the US withdrew and left the country in a bigger mess and eventual return to power of the dreaded Taliban. In other countries as in Syria and other regions during the post second world war, wherever the US went, it caused more problems than solving them. The messy and catastrophic US withdrawal from Afghanistan also marks another chapter in the country’s chequered military adventures across the globe. In the full bloom of its post-9/11 mandate, the George W. Bush administration shrugged off the growing concerns of some European allies over its invasion of Iraq and the reprimands of top officials at the United Nations. No matter the messiness of the U.S. withdrawal last month, polling shows the overwhelming majority of the American public still supports pulling troops out of Afghanistan. Few serious politicians in either of the country’s major parties call for new military interventions overseas. A growing body of lawmakers also want to curb the White House’s powers to wage war in the first place. Americans live in the past glory of the cold war era where it was the unchallenged super power. However, after a series of failures that forced American withdrawal from regions across the globe, there is an undeniable fact that today the USA cannot boast of being the supreme super power anymore. Today, the US is challenged by China in Asia, Africa, Middle East and even the American continent. Western Europe is just waiting to do business with the Chinese. The US will be forced to confront China anywhere and it is certain that the former will have no stomach to fight since its military will not be the top or the best anymore. Changes are taking place and China is emerging as the next super power in terms of economic as well as military might. Unless the US accepts the reality, it will be relegated to the pages of history, like the British Empire.