In decimating the Soviets, the Americans dug their own grave. Here's how.
Unlike their imperial allies, America never had a colonial & territorial empire. Instead, the nation enjoyed the status of a true superpower around which global institutions like the UN, IMF & World Bank were centred. Its influence & financial muscle was far-reaching. The "American Dream" was the epitome of living standards across the world.
But in the ceaseless pursuit of annihilating its arch-nemesis i.e. the USSR, the Americans seemed to have fueled their own decline in a fastidious manner.
THE AMERICAN MUJAHIDEEN
Source: Canberra Times
In their quest to uproot the Red Army from Kabul, the CIA initiated Operation Cyclone to finance & provide arms to local mujahideen. It is a well kept notion amongst the intelligentsia community across Asia & North America that the Taliban & al Qaeda were the product of Operation Cyclone. The great irony of the matter is that after 9/11, the Americans tried hard to eradicate their monstrous baby from Afghanistan. But after millions of civilian deaths, thousands of martyred soldiers, billions of taxpayer money & 20 years of struggle, the Americans have finally given up. In what was inevitable, the American exit has been a symbolic defeat of a power in decline.
Source: Jungle Maps
The Americans found an able & willing ally in Pakistan. ISI. The Pakistanis wanted to balance off India in South Asia & hence were willing to partner with the Americans. The nation's intelligence agency set up training camps for jihad & allowed a free flow of men, arms & ammo across the border. As the map above shows, before American intervention, the militant rebels were confined to the small red dots (major centre). The ISI unified these tribes & launched an all-out assault.
Due to their penchant for toppling the Soviets, the Americans have destroyed hundreds of millions of lives in Afghanistan, Syria & Iraq.
FUELED THE RISE OF THE RED DRAGON
Source: EU Bulletin
The USA was one of the first major powers from the Western world to establish trading relations with China after the Soviet-Sino impasse in 1969. The wily Americans wanted to snatch a major Soviet ally. Under Deng Xiaoping, Chinese economy underwent a capitalist makeover by opening up the economy & ditching Stalinist style Central Planning. President Reagan's Beijing visit marked the dawn of a new era for the Chinese. The map below is the best example of the USA digging its own economic grave by embracing China and endorsing it on the global stage, just to topple the Soviet Union by snatching away a key partner. The same China replaced them as the biggest trading partner of nations across the globe.
Source: HowMuch
EMBRACING POPULISM
History is a testament to the ruin which populist leaders cause.
Mussolini. Hitler. Bolsonaro. Putin. Mugabe. Castro. Maduro. Rajapaksa. Erdogan.
And the American equivalent of them all: Sir Donald Trump.
This man single-handedly embittered staunch allies, started a trade war, deepened racial divide, created a humanitarian crisis at the border, fluffed the Covid Pandemic & sparked a siege of the Capitol tarnishing America's image abroad.
And even after all this, Joe Biden made it to the White House only through the thinnest of margins. If America ever wants to retain its position as the numero uno of superpowers, it has to elect leaders who have an international outlook & the ability to gauge things in the long run (Biden seems to be of this mould to be fair).
If the USA wants to retain its hegemon status, it will have to curb China's soft power. Because the Chinese economy & military is definitely going to overtake America by 2040.
That's all folks.
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