After giving us a profoundly pessimistic account of the current state of affairs in the U.S., and the glaring discrepancy between official Washington and the “visceral” realism of the American public, who understand perfectly well that America is in decline, Tom Engelhardt, co-founder of the American Empire Project, writes:
“It’s actually going to feel better to be just another nation, one more country, even if a large and powerful one, on this overcrowded planet, rather than the nation. It’s going to feel better to only arm ourselves to defend our actual borders, rather than constantly fighting distant wars or skirmishes and endlessly preparing for more of the same. It’s going to feel better not to be engaged in an arms race of one or playing the role of the globe’s major arms dealer. It’s going to feel better to focus on American problems, maybe experiment a little at home, and offer the world some real models for a difficult future, instead of talking incessantly about what a model we are while we bomb and torture and assassinate abroad with impunity.
“So take some pleasure in this: our troops are coming home and you’re going to see it happen. And in the not so very distant future it won’t be our job to ‘police’ the world or be the ‘global sheriff.’ And won’t that be a relief? We can form actual coalitions of equals to do things worth doing globally and never have to organize another ‘coalition of the billing,’ twisting arms and bribing others to do our military bidding.
“Since by the time we get anywhere near such a world, our leaders will have run this country into the ground, it’s hard to offer the traditional three cheers for such a future. But how about at least one-and-a-half prospective cheers for the possible return of perspective to our American world, for a significant lessening, even if not the decisive ending, of an American imperial role and of the massive military ‘footprint’ that goes with it.
“It’s going to happen. Put your money on it.
“And thank you, George W. Bush (though I never thought I’d say that), you’ve given an old guy a shot at seeing the fruits of American decline myself.”
Source: Salon, September 21
Eric Koch’s book, The Weimar Triangle, is available at Indigo-Chapters and in your local bookstore. 
an off-the-top-of my-head response from the doom-and-gloom department: it’s a comforting vision, but when he says “It’s going to happen” he’s mistaken, because as he also says, “by the time we get anywhere near such a world, our leaders will have run this country into the ground”.
Not everyone can be 100% logical like you and I.
Recommended reading:
“The Paranoid Style in American Politics” – a late 1960′s essay by Richard Hofstadter. A summary is available on the web. A trenchant historical analysis even more pertinent today than when it was written.
Yes, yes, yes, but it must be read in conjunction with Engelhardt’s good news.
Is it possible that the piece was written with tongue in cheek? In any event, US leaders and politicians will never allow their citizens to think that their country is “just another nation … rather than the nation”.
Perhaps, but could Engelhardt conceivably be right when he refers to the discrepancy between the general public and (manifest-destiny) officialdom?
and why would not being emperor of the world reduce one’s status as chief arms dealer to the world? Emperors have had to engage in commerce before, and when one has been running a commercial empire…
…..the loss of glamour has shrunk the market.