Reality overthrows ‘history’s actors’

Paul Craig Roberts
Online Journal
Tuesday, Oct 28, 2008

“We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.” –Bush White House aide explaining the “New Reality”

The New American Century lasted a decade. Financial crisis and defeated objectives in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Georgia brought the neoconservative project for American world hegemony crashing to a close in the autumn of 2008.

The American neoconservatives are the heirs of Leon Trotsky. Their dream of American “Full Spectrum Dominance” — US military and economic superiority over any possible combination of states — is matched in ambition only by the early 20th century Trotskyite dream of a world Communist revolution.

The neocons used September 11, 2001, as a “new Pearl Harbor” to give power precedence over law domestically and internationally. The executive branch no longer had to obey federal statutes, such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or honor international treaties, such as the Geneva Conventions. An asserted “terrorist threat” to national security became the cloak which hid US imperial interests as the Bush Regime set about dismantling US civil liberties and the existing order of international law constructed by previous governments during the post-war era.

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Perhaps the neoconservative project for world hegemony would have lasted a bit longer had the neocons possessed intellectual competence.

On the war front, the incompetent neocons predicted that the Iraq war would be a six-week cakewalk, whose $70 billion cost would be paid out of Iraqi oil revenues. President Bush fired White House economist Larry Lindsey for estimating that the war would cost $200 billion. The current estimate by experts is that the Iraq war has cost American taxpayers between two and three trillion dollars. And the six-week war is now the six-year war.

On the economic front, the incompetent neocons overlooked the fact that a country that relocates its industry and best jobs abroad in order to maximize short-run profits becomes progressively economically weaker. Propagandistic talk about a “New Economy” built around financial dominance covered up the fact that the US was the world’s greatest debtor country, dependent on foreigners to finance the daily operation of its government, the home mortgages of its citizens, and its military operations abroad.

In Iraq, the neocons gave up their hegemonic military pretensions when they put 80,000 Sunni insurgents on the US Army’s payroll in order to scale down the fighting and reduce US casualties.

In Afghanistan, the neocons gave up more military pretensions when they had to rely on NATO troops to fight the Taliban.

US military pretensions came to an end in Georgia when the Bush Regime sent Georgian troops to ethnically cleanse South Ossetia of Russian residents in order to end the secessionist movement in the province, thereby clearing the path for Georgia’s NATO membership. It took Russian soldiers only a few hours to destroy the US and Israeli-trained and equipped Georgian Army.

The ongoing financial crisis has put an end to the pretensions of American financial hegemony and free-market illusions that deregulation and offshoring had brought prosperity to America.

In a long article, “The End of Arrogance,” on September 30, the German news magazine Der Spiegel observed:

“This is no longer the muscular and arrogant United States the world knows, the superpower that sets the rules for everyone else and that considers its way of thinking and doing business to be the only road to success . . .

Also on display is the end of arrogance. The Americans are now paying the price for their pride.

Gone are the days when the US could go into debt with abandon, without considering who would end up footing the bill. And gone are the days when it could impose its economic rules of engagement on the rest of the world, rules that emphasized profit above all else — without ever considering that such returns cannot be achieved by doing business in a respectable way . . .

A new chapter in economic history has begun, one in which the United States will no longer play its former dominant role. A process of redistributing money and power around the world — away from America and toward the resource-rich countries and rising industrialized nations in Asia — has been underway for years. The financial crisis will only accelerate the process. “

Looking at his defeated adversary, George W. Bush, brought down by military and economic failure, Iranian President Ahmadinejad observed: “The American empire in the world is reaching the end of its road, and its next rulers must limit their interference to their own borders.”

Truer words were never spoken.

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8 Responses to “Reality overthrows ‘history’s actors’”

Carebare11 Says:
October 28th, 2008 at 5:52 am
America is being looted, and it is sad to say that there are those who hide behind America’s superiority complexes, such as patriotism, xenophobia and racism that don’t allow most americans to see that it is being looted from the inside out.
ox Says:
October 28th, 2008 at 7:10 am
Neocons don’t appear to be incompetent. All of their goals are coming to fruition and we pay for it. To believe they wanted a short war is being naive. All their wars are planned for sustainability.

They lock out the debates, insight group fighting, arrest the press and peaceful demonstrators and basically do whatever they want. Anyone who even mentions their law breaking is killed or jailed or contracts a deadly disease.

Americans aren’t as arrogant as they are ignorant of the truth.
HeelCatcher Says:
October 28th, 2008 at 8:43 am
This Nation is being torn apart, Soon the American people will have no choice but to follow right along with their plans for NAU, the Amero or a paperless money system will look like a God send after whatever Disaster strikes us be it Nuclear or biological, after the riots the civil unrest, the civil wars, people killing one another for food. The people who set all this up are gonna come out looking like roses, and for it the people will give them even more power, and their silent unquestioning obedience. Well I say Fuck that Down with the NWO, Down with the Rich fools who think they can manipulate the masses and down with this failed system. We need a Revolution, we need to distribute the power back to the people, and out of the hands of these rich pigs. Lets stop spending money on these banks and start cultivating land, lets produce our own food, lets start up farms, lets start putting the homeless of this Nation into all those houses they’ve built everywhere, that thanks to this banking cartel no one can afford. All i’m saying is this Nation needs a drastic change, we need to Rise up together and tell them we don’t approve, and we need to make them hear us one way or another.
BeTrueSeekTruth Says:
October 28th, 2008 at 9:05 am
There are some excellent points in this article. I think the term ACTORS should be enlarged into 9 foot high type and underlined. This is a stage play. These are just actors. As far as the incompetence accustations go…they are obviously not very good actors. The perception that these people are incompetent requires a certain amount of credulity. In other words..if you truly believed that the war in Iraq would be 6 months long and cost 1.25 they appear incompetent. However if you read documentation stating the plan to be there at least 30 years you’ll see the initial claim was a lie, a scripted line, a fantasy carried out by B-grade actors. Hey, we’ve even had an out and out B-Grade actor as President. The only difference is that the others never acted in the cinema.
Rich Says:
October 28th, 2008 at 11:38 am
Great article. Also does a very good job of clouding the bigger issue and deflecting attention from the major source of all our woes. International banking cartel. NWO. Countries/govs are the players. We are just pawns if even that.The prize is planet EARTH. Our military could easily waltz into the Fed, all 12 of them, and arrest their boards and leaders. Then we could investigate and shoot them. Their crimes are many and serious. How many have died on account of these “people”. Let’s not leave out the rest of the cabal. The owners of this fraud. I don’t care what country they are hiding in. I have a feeling there wouldn’t be too much resistance anywhere. I think that would be a good start, in my opinion, theoretically of course. Ron Paul for President. Write him in.
Mikey Says:
October 28th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
hmmm if you want the best 911 info ask your self this why wont alex have these guys on this show http://www.thepentacon.com

also check out http://www.donaldtrumphair.com i cant figure it out why i think bermas is butt hurt thats why
Joe Says:
October 29th, 2008 at 1:06 am
Come on! The neo-con is not over, it’s just started!
one Says:
October 29th, 2008 at 9:40 am
Hey Mikey ! sieg heil