The Demise of a superpower

The Demise of a superpower.

  For more then a century the United States of America has been the World�s primer power in all affairs and at the forefront of all factors whether they be political, military, social or economic. The United States first rose to the rank of superpower after the Spanish-American in 1898 to share the state which other powers at the time such as Great Britain, France, Germany and Russia and was present in such world affairs after that such as the Versailles Treaty which crafted among other things the rise of Nazi Germany and the troubled Middle East of today. Directly after WWII with such European powers such as the British Empire beginning to fall off the World stage due to bankruptcy and other causes, A new world scene pitted the ideological former Allies of the United States and the Soviet Union against each other in a race for geopolitical dominance that lasted for over 50 years. During the course of this time the United States built the worlds best equipped, most technologically advanced military known to man, Also through competitiveness and a advanced education system along with sound and efficient health and welfare systems the United States managed to build one of the largest, most sophisticated economies in the course of human history. The United through many of these factors managed to win the Cold War against the Soviet Union with the Berlin Wall falling in 1989. The US now evolved to become the world�s only superpower in what many called �the new world order�.

  The United States however has and is beginning to face a new array of completely different adversaries in this �new world order� including Islamic fundamentalism, which has begun to get more traction in world affairs after the collapse of the Soviet Union and especially after the terror attacks of 9/11 upon the World Trade Center in New York and the Headquarters of the Department of Defense in Washington D.C.. These terror attacks were the responsibility of Al-Qaida a militant Islamic extremist organization operating out of the Sudan and Afghanistan before 9/11 and Al-Qaida is currently headed by Saudi billionaire Osama Bin Laden although his oversight remains unclear in current operations. After 9/11 the US went in militarily into Afghanistan to dislodge and destroy Al-Qaida and to decimate the Taliban which was the governing faction in Afghanistan in the years before 9/11 and is similar to Al-Qaida in terms ideology. The United State�s mission in Afghanistan has been relatively successful so far with the US receiving large scale international support with NATO and other nations backing up the US militarily as well as providing political support as well as military and financial aid to the new Afghan Government. However Al-Qaida and its leadership along with its Taliban allies and other organizations with the same motives escaped the clutches of US and Afghan allied forces and have begun to wage a guerrilla like war against the US and its allies as well as against the Afghan Government. As the war in Afghanistan was (and is still on going) President George W. Bush a Republican with a political ideology of the neoconservative mold in terms of foreign policy decides to pursue possible military action against Iraq which was under the leadership of Saddam Hussein due to the fact that �Iraq had WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction. The case for war was eventually taken to the United Nations where Iraq agreed to renew the weapons inspections it halted in 1998. However after a couple of months the weapons inspections, They are halted and the Bush Administration decides to purse the military action option, Although with little international support with notable UN Security Council members France, Germany, and Russia being staunchly opposed to it and with China taking a hands off approach to the whole matter leaving only Great Britain the only member of the security council to openly support military action against Iraq. Eventually after all the international political fighting military action against Iraq comes with a US led coalition with Great Britain being the other partner in it in terms of contributing on a large scale, Saddam Hussein�s regime is completely overthrown about a week after the invasion. With the initial invasion and the overthrowing of Saddam�s regime (which was called Operation Iraq Freedom) complete the Bush Administration declares the military aspect over. However as we would learn the military aspect was far from over as an insurgency made up of various groups would plague US and Coalition forces with the US especially suffering heavy casualties due to the fighting. Also due to attacks on Iraq Shiite shrines and other religious shires as well as attacks on Shiites themselves manage to trigger strong ethnic tension between Iraq�s main religious groups especially with Sunni-Shiite tensions running high. Also The US has had severe difficulty try to establish a functioning Iraqi Government, although legitimate suffers from rampant corruption infiltration from outside groups and a political structure that is rife with ethnic and religious tension. Also the US and its coalition partners are further harmed in their effort due to the fact that tens of billions of dollars worth of foreign aid money to the Iraqi Government has gone to waste and little progress has been made in building up and repairing Iraq�s infrastructure. The fighting in Iraq has done significant harm to the United State�s image and credibility around the World.  Also back at home in the US patience with the President and the Iraq Conflict is beginning to wear thin due to mounting casualties as well as other issues. Domestically the United States is facing mounting deficits, Crisis in it�s social and welfare programs, The outsourcing of jobs in the manufacturing sector as well as other sectors, A roller coaster economy in terms of performance, Growing bureaucracy and red tape, Political inefficiency and deadlock, As well as a large scale illegal immigration crisis on it�s Southern Border that threatens to cause a complete collapse of the health educational and welfare services of many states and completely change American culture. With the added addition of new and raising superpowers most notably China which could pose a threat to American hegemony abroad. As well as numerous more threats to US power in world excluding Islamic fundamentalism     

   From 2003 onwards it could be easily argued that the United States of America is a super power beginning to go into decline due to a various number of factors. Also historically the United States although unique in World History shares many characteristics with the fallen civilizations and empires of the past such as Rome and the British Empire. This applies to one of the crucial lessons of history that it repeats it�s self and this lesson could very well hold true for the United States of America in future as the US seems to be trending in this direction and if the United State�s ceases to be the leading power in the world, Geopolitics will be dramatically altered and the rules dramatically changed and this will effect just about every nation on earth and the people of those nation whether they have heard of the United States of America or not.