Russia and China head an alliance that poses the first direct challenge to the American empire since its inception at the end of World War II. Their strategy has been to follow Napoleon’s advice—not interrupting the U.S. government while it makes mistake after mistake—and to pursue the opposite of its hapless policies. Their power waxes; American power wanes.
August 29, 1949, the day the Soviets detonated their first atomic weapon, was the beginning of the end of the American empire. The U.S. government’s unrivaled power lasted four years and 23 days, from when it dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The Soviet bomb gave the world a counterweight to an American nuclear monopoly.
It is unclear if the Cold War was anything but a giant psyop on the part of the U.S. and the Soviet Union. By 1960 they had enough bombs between them to wipe out the planet, John F. Kennedy’s “missile gap” notwithstanding. This left a world where sane people believed that military conflicts had to be nonnuclear.
“Recovery will lie in the rediscovery of enduring truths. The game of thrones is a game of fools. A nation’s greatness is the liberty of its citizens to live their lives and pursue their happiness. The best foreign police [policy] is peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none. There’s no such thing as a free lunch. Anything the government gives you it took away from someone else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take away everything that you have. Like fire, government is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself. In fact, I couldn’t have come close. Outstanding article. I will never understand the sociopathy, perhaps psychopathy of deluded and evil government bureaucrats to grind human beings into misery and death so they can wield more power. To normal people, there is nothing more precious than human life. To these monsters, there is nothing less.
The Cold War. In 1966 I enlisted in the US Army. I was a tanker. Ended up in West Germany. 3rd Armored Division. Viet Nam was going hot and heavy. Every month troops were pulled out of our Division and sent to the Nam. In 1969 we were down to half strength. Only 2 men per tank. Usually a 4 man crew. Yet the Soviets didn’t attack. They could have wiped us out. Why? Nukes? I never knew.
Bayou Renaissance Man: A political advertisement I can get behind