I never thought I would see the day that America would need aid from other countries to cope with a domestic disaster. Yet in the wake of hurricane Katrina relief has been offered by dozens of countries: three helicopters by Singapore, 1100 doctors by Cuba, a frigate by the Netherlands. Such was the immensity of the storm and the ineptitude of the response, that the world’s richest country has asked the world for assistance.
It seems strange that such a mighty power, one which jealously guards its sovereignty and loudly proclaims its strength, should have to ask for help. But on closer inspection, it is not strange at all. America, for all its muscular GDP and its chest-beating nationalism, is neither as strong nor as independent as it once was.
For years the US has been living beyond its means, spending more than it takes in, selling more and more bonds to finance its way of life and piling more and more debt onto the shoulders of future generations. The central banks of Taipei, Beijing, Tokyo, Singapore and New Delhi have been only too happy to buy US bonds, since all these countries see the advantage of trading with a solvent America. But these governments make that judgement in their national interests, not in America’s.
Added to this, one must remember that the US is quickly becoming a superpower without a manufacturing base, where even the flags waved so proudly are made in China. It is debatable whether a country which produces so little of what it consumes can remain a superpower for long.
These economic factors severely restrict America’s room for manoeuvre, particularly in relation to any future confrontation with China. When Mao Tse-tung said “all power flows from the barrel of a gun” he was only half right. Yes, America has great influence because of its huge military, but there are other kinds of power, including the power which comes from being a country which actually produces real, tangible, physical goods.
Furthermore, as most Americans seem to instinctively grasp, their independence of action is constrained by their economy’s over-reliance on oil. It is dangerous for the US to be so dependent on an energy source which is found mainly outside the America’s borders and which, in any case, will not be with us forever. Because of the power of big oil in US politics, no administration has tackled this problem head on, allowing the situation to drift and drift while oil reserves have depleted. Faced with a dwindling of fossil fuels, the US faces two choices, either invest in renewable energy sources or reconfigure its economy so that it uses less oil. Both are horrendously expensive options.
Of course, these are the same choices faced by every industrial or industrialising country on the planet. But the US, as the world’s gas-guzzler, will find it hardest to adapt to the new world which is coming (and coming rather quickly). As the era of cheap oil ends, America which benefited most in that epoch, will find itself at a comparative disadvantage to Europe and East Asia.
One short-sighted solution to this problem was the invasion of Iraq which installed the US in the midst of some of the world’s richest oil fields. But even if this disastrous war does lead to greater US access to Middle Eastern oil (and I say “if” because of the considerable problems in keeping the Iraqi pipelines functioning), it is still just plastering over the cracks, delaying the inevitable.
In the meantime, the war has seriously weakened America in a myriad of ways, from the huge cost of the conflict to the US taxpayer, to the increase in anti-American hostility around the world. Most of all though, the war in Iraq has exposed the weakness of the US military. It is now more than evident that the US is losing the war in Iraq to an insurgency which draws support from only a fifth of the country’s population. US troops can not even control the road from Baghdad to the airport, let alone the Sunni towns to the west. For all its sophisticated weaponry, one is left with the inescapable conclusion that America will lose to a technologically-inferior foe in Iraq just as it did in Vietnam - because its enemy wants to win more than it does.
This is all a long way from the immediate aftermath of the war in Afghanistan, with all the talk of an American hyperpower, bestriding the known world as the Romans once did. In the wake of Iraq and Katrina America is no longer the mighty power it seemed just a few short years ago. Welcome back to earth, Uncle Sam.