Rome Under Siege

On December 26, 1991, the red hammer and sickle flag flying over the Kremlin came down for the last time and the tricolor of Russia was raised signaling the end of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and its replacement by the Russian Federation. The USSR was formally dissolved and many new republics came into existence as independent nations.

The immediate effect of this was the transformation of the world from multiple centers of power, often dangerously competing with each other to a so called unipolar world with only one remaining superpower, namely the United States of America. Historians and philosophers, with the exception of diehard leftists and communists who saw their life’s work and beliefs evaporate, hailed the end of history. Democracy had won. The twentieth century, perhaps the bloodiest in history, was going to end on a happy note. Fascism, Nazism and Communism were done, finished, and only waiting to be forgotten as they were now in the dustbin of history. War, much less nuclear war, was now less of a threat than in a long time and the United States, the new Rome, the foremost nation of the world was now the unchallenged leader of the world. Peace was on the horizon. Defense budgets could be cut. Economies could grow. Money could be spent on improving lives. A Pax Americana was here to stay. The prophecy of Isaiah could now be fulfilled. As is written on the famous wall at the United Nations (Isaiah 2:4) “they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war anymore.” Now, in 2021, thirty years later, that glittering vision seems far from reality. What went wrong?

The simple answer is everything. But that’s not really an answer. While Americans and Europeans, east and west, may have rejoiced, other parts of the planet we live on were not as affected by the end of the Cold War as we had hoped and imagined. For one thing, Communism wasn’t as dead as we thought. It still existed in the Peoples Republic of China (PRC), Cuba, and in the hearts and minds of many who did not believe that the downfall of the USSR changed very much. At the same time, the apparent defeat of Soviet Communist internationalism unleashed a virulent nationalism in many of the newly independent former Soviet Republics with resultant ethnic unrest and wars. Yugoslavia devolved into its constituent republics with extreme bloodshed which NATO and European peace keeping forces could not pacify. At least eight new countries arose from that country, with bitter and bloody ethnic battles and war crimes occurring on an almost daily basis, seen by all on the evening news. Czechoslovakia was more fortunate as it split into Slovakia and the Czech Republic peacefully, but wars in the Caucuses intermittently continue between Christian Armenia, and Muslim Azerbaijan, and Russia itself has seized parts of Georgia, as well as annexing by force the Ukrainian Crimean Peninsula. War seems possible in Europe despite the Helsinki Final Act (1975) which officially ended World War II and established the boundaries of all European countries. Submerged nationalism has essentially abolished this important Act and Russian nationalism at this moment threatens the three Baltic states as well as Ukraine which are essentially defenseless against the Russian bear.

Regrettably, the United States bears its share of culpability for the present situation the world finds itself in. From January 20,1993 to this date we have had incompetent and mediocre leadership at the highest levels of our government. Inexperienced leader after leader has performed marginally with the result that the position of the US in the world has continuously deteriorated and the so called allies we are alleged to have are little better than parasites, enjoying life while we take up the struggle for every problem that exists in the world. The insane policy of Liberal Hegemony which has guided American foreign policy since the inauguration of Bill Clinton, has created a ruinous foreign policy that has eroded America’s standing in the world. Based on three principles, namely Democratic Peace Theory, Free Trade and International Organizations (the UN), America’s position in the world has weakened disastrously. Democratic Peace Theory posits that democracies don’t make war on each other, so the imperative on the US is to turn every country in the world into a democracy. As high minded as this may seem, it also means that the US must involve itself in the internal affairs of virtually every country in the world, whether or not we are asked to or these other nations desire us to. The President and his State Department have a comment on anything and everything as the new ideology demands that everything is our business. From the South China Sea to Central America the geniuses of the State Department are ready to teach others what we think they should do. Naturally, the major part of our leverage consists of money in the form of foreign aid, grants and trade concessions. The third world has never refused to take our money but they retain their independence in pursuing policies inimical to our interests and vision. The expansion of NATO to the border of Russia is a major mistake. NATO is no longer North nor Atlantic and its myriad members refuse to spend the amounts required by treaty on their defense. The demands by President Trump that this omission by our putative allies be remedied simply led to their rejection of America and slandering of the president who dared to demand that they fulfill their obligations. NATO’s Partnership for Peace with Russia is non existent, much less irrelevant. Democratic Peace Theory should require that we support nations which are democracies and are under threat by authoritarian or totalitarian states. But business comes first. The US refuses to have diplomatic relations with Taiwan and is subservient to PRC’s refusal to have relations with any nation that recognizes Taiwan as an independent nation. The PRC holds a major portion of the US national debt and their refusal to roll it over periodically could have terrible effects upon our economy. Truly, we are captive to them in the economic sphere. Israel, too, a democratic state under threat by state sponsored terrorism from Iran has learned that under the Biden administration, appeasement of Iran comes first. Perhaps the most obvious failure and humiliation of the US was President Obama’s “red line” speech warning Syria not to use chemical weapons. Syria, with Russian backing ignored the warning, and crossed the red line with no American reaction.

Free trade, another leg of Liberal Hegemony, has essentially destroyed the American economy. It is almost impossible to find a manufactured product made in the US. Yes, there are products manufactured here but the hope of ever again having a strong industrial base in the US is fading every day. A trip to any big box store (unnamed as irrelevant to our discussion) offers the consumer a wide variety of goods manufactured everywhere but in the US. How cosmopolitan we have become. Yet politicians and citizens alike demand “good jobs”. What can we tell them, move to China, or Cambodia or Haiti as that is where your job is? Our trading partners were very smart as they demanded technology transfer as the price of doing business with them. So our patent and trade secrets were handed over to our “friends” who today have become our uncompromising competitors. Add to this an uncontrolled immigration policy, where most of the immigrants to the US, documented or undocumented, lack education sufficient to thrive in an advanced economy, and the setup exists for creation of a new underclass. The North American Free Trade Agreement, negotiated during the Clinton presidency was of great benefit to Canada and Mexico, not so much to the US. It was re-negotiated during the Trump presidency. Whether it will be an improvement remains to be seen.

The final leg of American foreign policy is international organizations. There are so many that one needs a road map to know what is what and who is who. G-7, G-20, OAS, NATO, UN, not to mention he innumerable treaties which ally us with virtually every country (save a handful) in the world. It is noteworthy that the interlocking treaties between the various European powers led inevitably to World War I as a result of the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne in Sarajevo. But for an incomprehensible and undecipherable network of treaties, this war should never have happened and scholars to this day are uncertain which country should be blamed for it, the Treaty of Versailles and its war guilt clause notwithstanding. Of course, that ill fated treaty created the League of Nations, which failed in its mission and led to the unstable world which resulted in an even more lethal and destructive war. The United Nations is structurally unsound, Veto power in the hands of several third rate countries such as the United Kingdom and France are more than historic oddities. They have little to no business being on the UN Security Council. It is memorable how France tried to behave as a world power and humiliate the US when secretary of State Colin Powell sought to justify US action against Iraq. France tried hard to paint the US into a corner at the UN but failed. However, the US still feels the necessity to obtain UN approval to defend its interests. Thus, all factors in the theory of Liberal Hegemony ultimately work against American interests. A revision of US foreign policy to put the interests of America in the forefront is mandatory.

As mentioned above, the downfall of Soviet Communist internationalism was neither anticipated nor understood by most students of foreign policy. The dream of the Pax Americana became paramount as reality faded from view. Nationalism went rampant, particularly in the Muslim world with resulting widespread chaos. This nationalism by the Muslim umma has weakened America morally, financially and politically. Bill Clinton’s inexperience led us, of all places, into Somalia with tragic results. He later ordered the bombing of Belgrade, where American bombs hit the Chinese embassy resulting in great embarrassment. Nation building is a thankless task and is not the US’s concern. American soldiers died in vain in Somalia and twenty-five years later nothing there has changed. If anything can be said about the people who have served as Secretary of State in the last thirty years it is that they are forgettable. Most had little to no foreign policy experience, and one who had great experience, Condoleezza Rice, was a specialist in Soviet affairs. Unfortunately for her, and the US, the USSR no longer existed.

In presidential debates in 2000, two marginally qualified candidates, George W. Bush, the Republican Governor of Texas and Albert Gore, Jr., the Democrat Vice President argued over how the economy could be managed without a national debt, as it appeared at that time the debt would be extinguished within another year or so. It was not to be. September 11, 2001 changed everything, as the new Bush 43 administration chose to go to war against Iraq as it was alleged it was pursuing weapons of mass destruction and was in alliance with Al Qaeda, the perpetrator of 9/11. That terrorist organization was based in Afghanistan and thus a twenty year engagement in Afghanistan started. An unnecessary war in Iraq overthrew the Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein. No weapons of mass destruction were ever found. Thousands of American lives were lost. These wars cost in excess of $6.4 Trillion. The current national debt is over $28 trillion. Whether we will ever be in the position of the debate of 2000 over the end of the national debt is doubtful.

So what can be done? Rome is under siege internationally and internally as the fallout from the incompetence of the last thirty years has led to a virtually unbridgeable chasm in the American body politic. Violence has become endemic in large cities, behavior is increasingly uncivil as no value is placed on other’s thoughts or opinions. The media has lost the confidence of most of the public and the question is now whether civilization as we know it in our country can survive. More importantly, will democracy survive? Ted Kennedy and Orrin Hatch were great friends as were Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia. These public figures rarely agreed yet they were more than civil. They were human beings who valued the opinion of others. Famously, Ronald Reagan, a conservative president and Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill, the liberal House speaker were great friends as well. There was no politics after 5pm. Only friendship. None of this exists today as each party has only venom to offer to the other.

July 4, 1976 was the 200th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Nationwide, the country celebrated the Bicentennial of its birth as the sun moved westward from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Richard Nixon, re-elected in a landslide in November 1972 had looked forward to presiding over the celebration. However, he resigned in 1974. Gerald R. Ford was the President and he flew from city to city on that day as the sun moved into the different time zones that make up America. He was an unelected President, the only one who has ever been in that category. Ford served honorably, lost the 1976 election to Jimmy Carter and left office on January 20, 1977. The American Sestercentennial will be celebrated on July 4, 2026, only five years from now. Let us hope that the chief executive at that celebration will be a democratically and constitutionally elected president who can restore civility to our nation.

Garry S. Sklar

Guttenberg, New Jersey

July 24, 2021