Marvin Gandall wrote:
>
> LBO's iconoclast-in-residence Carrol Cox writes:
>
> > But of course the Bush Administration has been as successful, perhaps
> > more so, than any administration in my memory, except perhaps for the
> > first Truman Administration, which established the parameters for world
> > affairs for the next 50 years.
>
> Your opinion, though, is shared by neither the US's closest allies nor it's
> adversaries in Iran, Venezuela, Russia, China, and elsewhere. They believe
> the Bush administration's adventure in Iraq has seriously weakened US
> political influence and exposed the limits of its military power and that
> it's domestic policies have contributed to the gravest threat to the
> capitalist system since the great depression.
I really do hope they are right and I am wrong. We shall see.
I would point out that during the century-long British hegemony (which included in effect providing the muscle behind the Monroe Doctrine), "Twisting the Lion's Tail" was a widespread sport aomong those who would have been horrified had British power seriously been threatened. And U.S.-bashing has been a favorite sport among European politicians and pundits (cf. Charles De Gaulle) for many years, and hardly began with the Iraq invasion.
Whatever one thinks of Mao's whole 'career,' on one point he was indubitably correct: "If you don't hit it, it won't fall." Currently no one is hitting either capitalism as a whole or u.s. hegemony.
Carrol