America’s International Decline Can No Longer Be Ignored

The bad news about America’s weakening position on the international stage just keeps pouring in. America’s allies engaged in conflict are suffering from our bad habit of supporting them just enough to keep them in battle but effectively forbidding them to win.

Israel forthrightly declared their intent a year ago to eliminate Hamas, an Iranian proxy militia that inflicted a horrific, unprovoked massacre on Jewish civilians. For Prime Minister Netanyahu it was basic self-preservation. The October 7 atrocity was one of hundreds of attacks supporting Hamas’ stated objective of eliminating all Jews “from the river to the sea.”

America’s contribution to their existential struggle has been to insist that the Israeli army prioritize hostage welfare, comply with cease-fire deadlines that advantage Hamas, and not do anything too damaging to the enemy combatants, on the pain of losing American support entirely. It’s the logical equivalence of America insisting that the Brits try to not hurt Nazis any more than necessary in WWII so they won’t dislike us.

Another ally, Ukraine, is bearing the brunt of Russia’s aggressive attempt to reclaim European hegemony. Again, America is helping our friends on the condition that the weapons we provide don’t do too much harm, especially to nuclear weapons installations.

Meanwhile, Ukraine is “bleeding out”, risking hollowing out an entire demographic of battle-aged young men in a desperate attempt to maintain their sovereignty.

Communist China is the most dangerous threat of all. Their “Belt and Road” initiative is successfully establishing infrastructure dependency relationships across the globe. They are beefing up their military presence in areas like the South China Sea, obviously preparing for future conflict. Their relentless efforts to diplomatically and electronically infiltrate the highest levels of American government and business continue unabated.

America’s foreign policy in the past 35 years has been based on the assumption that if we mollify tyrants they will reciprocate our friendship. For example, Obama rescinded agreements to station missile defenses in Poland and Czechoslovakia when Russia pitched a fit over our purely defensive aims. Obama later announced a “red line” warning prohibiting Syria’s use of chemical weapons, then did nothing whatsoever when they went ahead anyway.

America’s alarming decline was detailed in a recent report by the Commission on National Defense Strategy, a panel of eight experts appointed by senior members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees. They reviewed both public and classified information to issue a comprehensive report that in a more engaged polity would have generated widespread concern.

The report detailed a record of political failure and strategic incoherence that has created growing American weakness and consequently increased danger level. America faces the most serious and challenging threats since 1945, including the real risk of a “near-term major war”. As other military experts have tried to warn us, America has underfunded its military for so long that it simply “is not prepared today” for such a war.

America’s enemies clearly see the opportunity to advance their interests by making common cause against us. China and Russia’s “no limits partnership” formed in 2022 now has grown to include a military and economic partnership with Iran and North Korea, creating a real risk that conflict anywhere could become a “multi-theater or global war”. Moreover “the Commission finds that the US military lacks both the capabilities and the capacity required to be confident it can deter and prevail in combat”.

The nonpartisan commissioners aren’t warmongers. They are trying to avoid war by alerting Americans that we have, apparently unwittingly, wandered into some highly dangerous territory. Nevertheless, the American public essentially responded with a collective yawn. It was hardly mentioned by our major press. Candidates for office didn’t think it was a problem worth bringing up.

This election should have included a serious discussion about our darkening future. Instead, we focused on abortion, climate change, EVs, mortgage subsidies, and yet more ways to win votes by spending money we don’t have.

Would-be leaders vowed to achieve 0% carbon emissions by 2050. But we neglected to seriously address the question of whether America as we know it will even exist by 2050.

History judges severely this degree of indifference by once-great nations.