United States of America: The prophecy self-fulfilled!

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Thursday, May 01, 2003 By: Venezuelan Ambassador Alfredo Toro Hardy

Venezuelan Ambassador Alfredo Toro Hardy writes: The United States of America has been invincible in every field.  Its GDP represents 31.2% of the world's average ... its expenditure on defense amounts to 36.6% of global defense spending and is more than the combined spending of the 15 immediately following countries.  Its expenditure on research reaches 40.6% of global expenditure in this field and it turns out to be the equivalent of the next seven richest nations on the planet. Its cultural presence, which Joseph Nye has characterized as the "soft power" is to be found everywhere: North American ideas, habits and values make up the universal language of globalization.

Paradoxically, over the space of the last few years and at the moment of its greatest glory, United States intelligentia has been immersed in a markedly pessimistic reflective process with respect to its future.

Starting with Paul Kennedy and his masterful study of the decadency of the United States, there have been many authors who have touched on the theme from distinct perspectives.  Among them we find Robert Putnam, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Lester Thurow, Donald White, Samuel Huntington and  Immanuel Wallerstein.

The incomprehensible stance of intellectual Americans has taken on decibels of paranoia and deep depression and reaches the levels of conservative, neo-conservative and neo-populist North American sectors, especially those who form the base of the Republican Party.  Particular mention in this regard should be given to the ample neo-populist alliance of movements such as "America First," "Third Force," "Christian Soldiers," "Third Wave Conservatives," "Radical Rebels" and "State Rebels."  The United States is hounded on all fronts by neo-populism, by forces which are alert to their decadency: immigration, trans-culturalization, moral crisis, loss of religious values etc.

Meanwhile, the more inconsistent the feeling of pessimism for the future of their country becomes, in moments where the United States had arrived at a point that has not been attained by the hegemony of any of the Super Powers before them, it is evident that there is a price to pay.  The search for self-ratification which comes from their perception of their own decline, has led to extreme levels of arrogance and high-handedness.

Little by little, the Bush administration has been destroying international order and a system of universal rules and principles accepted by common agreement, of which the United States was the principle author and greatest beneficiary.  At the same time, "soft power" has been transmogrified into "hard power" at the expense of goodwill and the popularity that the United States and its lifestyle enjoyed far and wide throughout the planet.

The "Ugly American" thesis with which it had been associated during the Vietnam War has once again come to symbolize the current world mood vis-a-vis the United States of America.

More and more, the United States is becoming a powerful recluse ... it is evident that despite its unquestionable primacy, such an attitude has greatly limited its capacity to mould international will.

Its power has twisted into antipathy and is moving away from any real capacity to influence.  In some way, the warnings of its intellectuals, braced by the deep pessimism of right-wing sectors could well be the road leading to self-fulfilled prophecy.

Former Venezuelan USA Ambassador Alfredo Toro Hardy has extensive diplomatic experience in Washington and across the United States.  He is presently Venezuela's Ambassador to the Court of St. James (London), writes regular editorial commentaries in the Spanish-language Venezuelan media and appears here for the first time in VHeadline.com Venezuela.  You may email Ambassador Toro Hardy at embvenuk-despacho@dial.pipex.com