Washington Post article: The era of American privilege is over

Successful statecraft connects interests to circumstances. In the immediate aftermath of World War II, a generation of statesmen who recognized this fundamental truth led a radical reorientation of basic US policy, with the result being half a century of global American supremacy.

This is how Andrew Bacevich, president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Government, began his Washington Post article, noting that the era of American supremacy is now over, and that the necessity of the present moment requires that US policy adjust to rapidly changing circumstances.

The writer mentioned that in the past two decades since the events of September 11, 2001, members of the American foreign policy establishment have sought to master this issue or avoid it, but the failure of the American war that lasted 20 years in Afghanistan suggests that this is no longer possible.

Bacevich referred to a key point made by George Kennan, director of policy planning at the US State Department, in his writings in 1948 when he said, "We have about 50% of the world's wealth, but we represent only 6.3% of its population. So our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of Relationships allow us to maintain this situation of disparity."

With this goal in mind, Kennan's partners, led by George Marshall, Dean Acheson, James Forrestal, and Paul Neitz, have undertaken a series of initiatives aimed at perpetuating this position of inequality, focusing their approach on devising mechanisms to project American power globally.

The writer hinted that among their most famous initiatives were the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, and NATO.

He added that not everything worked out as planned, and this resulted in a great error and foolishness of judgment, which resulted in a frantic arms race;

The emergence of a rotten military-industrial complex and a standoff with a watershed battle during the Cuban Missile Crisis and a war that went wrong in Vietnam.

But in general, during the decades-long Cold War, Americans enjoyed a lifestyle that made the United States the envy of the world for freedom, democracy, and prosperity, or so was the firm belief of most Americans.

The US war in Afghanistan ended in bitter humiliation, but it should also serve as a wake-up call that the age of American privilege is gone forever.

Bacevich added that the end of the Cold War contributed to the confirmation of such convictions, and so the collapse of the Soviet Union and the demise of communism raised some other ideas regarding the now-established paradigm of power projection.

In response to the terrorist attack on New York and Washington, former President George W. Bush hit back, describing the nation's new enemy as the "heirs of all the murderous ideologies" of the last century, and that the United States would deal with it exactly as it dealt with "fascism, Nazism and tyranny," and would define the recent past. America's future.

At Bush's request, America launched a global war on terrorism targeting the "axis of evil", which consists of 3 countries not involved in the events of September 11, namely Iraq, North Korea and Iran.

In contrast to these three countries, Afghanistan came to the fore in the terrorist attack, but in practice in the world war that followed, Afghanistan was only an afterthought, and Washington's priorities lie elsewhere.

By this time, the coherence between US policy and Kennan's divergent stance had begun to unravel.

By 2000, the United States accounted for 32.6 percent of the world's wealth.

Just two decades later, America's share of global wealth has shrunk to less than 30%.

At the same time, the gap between rich and poor within America itself was growing by leaps and bounds, contributing to deep internal turmoil.

The phrase "free, democratic, and prosperous" no longer suffices to describe contemporary America, even in the eyes of many Americans, and the postwar formula no longer works for maintaining a global center of excellence.

The writer concluded that the American war in Afghanistan ended in bitter humiliation, but it should also serve as a warning bell that the era of American privilege has gone forever.

His article concluded that the most urgent task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relations that would restore and renew the prevailing concept of American freedom, and this task begins with providing safety and well-being for Americans where they live.