Comment 25 of 44, added on March 12th, 2012 at 9:38 AM.
QhXOknVRabSSAD
In my amateurish view this aitrcle by John. Mearsheimer (JM) is flawed,
not only in some details but also in its final conclusion.Now that the
global muscle of US has lost some of its material and moral strengths it is
not surprising to see why critical thinkers like JM are questioning
themselves what really did go wrong.I wonder what JM’s reaction would
have been if after recent adventures like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
US had won the wars with a decisive victory causing a noticeable
amplification of US strength? By reading this aitrcle I got the impression
if such a military triumph was achieved he would have felt the kind of
satisfaction G.W. Bush felt when he was speaking in the renowned ceremony
of ‘Mission Accomplished’. This is because somehow I sensed JM’s
attitude towards the overall humanity is derived from elements of
nationalism, hegemony and maybe some sort of ‘exceptionalism’ which
are the commodities common to the bullying racist Israeli or Western
decision makers.I have to rush to say I fully respect JM for his service to
his country especially for writing (with Stephen Walt) the renowned book
entitled ‘Israel Lobby’ (which addresses one of the root causes of
corruption in the US political system) If he was like any of the
right-wing American political scientists I wouldn’t have bothered to
challenge any of his observations.I agree with MOST of JM’s allegations
and his identification of the problems that caused the failures. Yet what
is disagreeable is his conclusion which if applied in practice, in my view,
can never achieved the objectives he has in mind, ie the (eternal?)
superiority and global hegemony of the United States of America.In the
following I use imaginary scenarios to clarify why:Maybe US had only once
the opportunity to become an eternal future superpower (not an imperial
power). when, over two centuries ago, it won the war of independence.
Suppose the founding fathers of the US had extraordinary ingenious and
canny vision, capable of foreseeing what the world could become in the far
futures. Suppose based on such a vison they had established a truly JUST,
egalitarian, non-religious workable system. A system which could gradually
transform the backward people to cooperative, constructive and
compassionate citizens all living their lives in a humanly possible peace
and harmony. Imagine then gradually in proper times, Americans advanceing
further and (non-violently?) freeing other oppressed people of the world
and helping them to, in all aspects, become exactly like themselves. I say
only under such (imagined) circumstances of grand events America could have
earned the highly respected paternal position of ceremonial superiority
forever.Of course the above in reality never could have happened. Humanity
is ever-evolving. Long long ago our ancestors were cannibals. (no human
being in primitive times was capable of imagining any truly functional
JUST and modern society) A few centuries ago in Europe they were burning
free-thinkers in the town squares under the charge of blasphemy, in America
the natives were systematically annihilated and slaves were brutally
deprived from their basic rights and so on. (I have to mention now that
past American history can be quickly forgotten if US changes its course.
Humanity can easily ignore the past if at present the principals of mutual
respect are adhered to. Vikings were known to be plunderers and rapists yet
today their off-springs are the most respected people in the world). If
hegemony of one ruling system is examined using the recent findings in the
fields of biology, neuroscience and anthropology then JM’s conclusions
become questionable. I am also almost certain if an accurate model of
humanity is simulated using supercomputers then the model would prove any
isolated ruling system can not endure forever. I also maintain it is
absolutely impossible for US to become a superpower as described by MJ.
This is simply because the US system is so deeply corrupted nothing less
than an extreme ‘revolution’ can put it back on the healthy path. Only
after such a drastic change the US is in the position to copy the above
conjectured scenario where some ingenious and libertine new founding
fathers establish a universal JUST system which can be applicable not only
to themselves but to the whole humanity.Of course such a scenario too might
belong to the realm of the sheer fantasy.So someone must wake up those who
dream of an eternal global hegemony. Such entity can never materialize
since on top of all the above mentioned reasons it is against the strong
evolutionary forces that drive humanity forward.In quite a few paragraphs
of JM’s aitrcle I noticed questionable assertions. Commenting on all of
them requires many additional pages of explanation which is beyond the
scope of my task here.I think JM has shown he has the intelligence and
courage to change. Could I humbly suggest him to carefully examine the
following subjects:1- The extreme influence of childhood indoctrinations
(or the strong impact of training in security related occupations) on our
minds and our world-view and why it is not easy to scape from the controls
of such influence. 2- New scientific discoveries on Genetic Sequencing
where it is proven our genes and the genes of chimps are about the same
(99% commonality) and how chimps are protective of their own tribe and go
to war with other tribes. Also the importance of fully understanding the
revelation that “the inter-race genetic diversities are larger than those
among the races”.3- Conclusions from simple models of Prisoner’s
Dilemma or from complex models created using Game theory and how Israelis
are masters of the latter and through this knowledge (with high
probability) know without American Hegemony their legitimacy and survival
might be in danger.
Sowil from
Oman
8NLaqq A round of applause for your blog article.Really thank you! Will
read on...
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