Business as Usual in the US

I’ve no idea why so many people’s hopes have been raised by a change of figurehead in America, perhaps it’s desperation. The two party system in the US, just as in the UK currently, offers an electoral choice between two almost identical sets of policies and values, both pro-capitalist and pro big business. Some of the rhetoric is designed to appease the little guy, but the strategic vested interests are all very well entrenched, it really doesn’t make any odds whose face it is that reads their chilling speeches:

“We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense”

But that way of life, the over consumption of resources, the cultural imperialism,  the  meddling and bullying  is going to have to change anyway whether they like it or not. The trouble is, declining superpowers can be tempestuous:

“We will undertake a full review of the situation in Afghanistan in order to develop a comprehensive policy for the entire region,” Obama said.

The entire region is the whole of Asia, including the Indian subcontinent with Pakistan implicated alongside Afghanistan.

Obama said that US troop levels must increase in Afghanistan. “For at least a year now, I have called for two additional brigades, perhaps three,” he told CBS. “I think it’s very important that we unify command more effectively to coordinate our military activities.

No war in Afghanistan has ever been won for hundreds of years,  and in a time of huge and persistent economic crisis where will the money come from to pursue these campaigns and occupations around the world? The demand for oil has temporarily dropped, which may give some respite but insistence on defending a system which depends on permanent economic growth and expansion of markets is always going to make trouble ahead, sooner or sooner.

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