Geoffrey Wheatcroft: America's Unraveling Power
[Geoffrey Wheatcroft is the author of “The Controversy of Zion,” “The Strange Death of Tory England” and “Yo, Blair!” is the author of “The Controversy of Zion,” “The Strange Death of Tory England” and “Yo, Blair!”]
We don’t know what will happen. After the high drama of Tahrir Square and Hosni Mubarak’s imminent departure we don’t know what will come next.
But if detailed prognostication is foolish and presumptuous, some things can be said with confidence. No regime that follows Mubarak’s in Cairo is likely to be as friendly to Washington. More generally, American policy is unraveling throughout the Middle East, and far beyond. We are witnessing an historic eclipse of U.S. power....
Not so long ago it might have made sense as realpolitik for Washington to back undemocratic regimes, from the days of “He may be a son of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch” in Latin America to Mubarak himself, but at least those regimes could be relied on to co-operate with their sponsor. One of the consequences of the end of the Cold War is that the old deal no longer holds.
Even Mubarak’s departure has been accompanied by the words of his foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, saying angrily that Washington should not “impose” its will on “a great country.”...
Read entire article at NYT
We don’t know what will happen. After the high drama of Tahrir Square and Hosni Mubarak’s imminent departure we don’t know what will come next.
But if detailed prognostication is foolish and presumptuous, some things can be said with confidence. No regime that follows Mubarak’s in Cairo is likely to be as friendly to Washington. More generally, American policy is unraveling throughout the Middle East, and far beyond. We are witnessing an historic eclipse of U.S. power....
Not so long ago it might have made sense as realpolitik for Washington to back undemocratic regimes, from the days of “He may be a son of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch” in Latin America to Mubarak himself, but at least those regimes could be relied on to co-operate with their sponsor. One of the consequences of the end of the Cold War is that the old deal no longer holds.
Even Mubarak’s departure has been accompanied by the words of his foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, saying angrily that Washington should not “impose” its will on “a great country.”...