Suez: 1956, the French and British attempt to seize the Suez Canal. The United States says, no. The two ailing empires back down, and they are on the downward slide, which has continued to this day. Brexit Britain is a Chihuahua on the world stage, and France’s grip on its Francophone vassals in Africa is rapidly slipping away.
The current hegemon, the lawless US Empire of Lies and Chaos relies on two pillars for its primacy: its military might and the world’s reserve currency: the ubiquitous dollar. Both are now in jeopardy.
Despite spending over half of the globe’s military budget, the US military has been shown to be a hollow, expensive sham. Signs have been evident for a while: when Iran rocketed a US base in Iraq in 2020 in retaliation for the murder of General Solemani, there was no response. The Patriot missile is so useless it cannot intercept Houthi drones that they built in a garage. Most of the 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles fired at Syria in 2017 were shot down or jammed. Now the full mediocrity of NATO’s vaunted wunderwaffe is revealed: most of them are expensive, and poor performers on the crucible of the modern battlefield. Javelin, Leopard 2, M777, and many others are inferior to pretty much anything the Russians have, and most antiquated Soviet-made systems like the S300 air defence (AD) missile complex, which still outperforms modern Western AD.
However, the main strength of the empire was the US Dollar. It allows that country to print dollars and buy real items, including vital commodities like oil and finished goods such as iPhones for free. This is a giant vacuum cleaner sucking wealth out of the rest of the world and depositing it in the USA. It can economically coerce or bribe nations to do its bidding. Spare dollars get reinvested in the States, boosting its economy. Many countries have been unhappy with this, but lacked the ability to do anything about it.
That has changed with a realignment of the Global South/Majority World, where 85% of people live. Led by China (huge economy and industrial might) and Russia (resources and military clout), the rest of the world is steadily moving away from the dollar. BRICS, the BRI, SCO, and the Asian Development Bank are just a few of the institutions that are replacing US dominated extortion gangs like the World Bank and IMF.
It is a complex process, that has to be done slowly, as a sudden de-dollarisation would cause huge damage to everyone. So the pace is slow and will probably take a decade or two. Nevertheless, as the USA’s economic power recedes, many countries have stopped taking any notice of its wishes. Note how Blinken was rebuffed or ignored when he went to drum up support for Israel recently.
After the Ukraine catastrophe, the crazies who run the US deep state are doubling down on support for Israel, as it inflicts carnage on the people of Gaza. There is a chess predicament, known as Zugzwang, where any move you make is disastrous, yet you have to move. This is where the US is at the moment. If it abandons Ukraine, it will look weak. If it supports the brutality of Zionist war crimes it will weaken that settler colonist state and itself. As peacemaking seems impossible for any Western power to contemplate, there has to be a harsh realignment forced by the rest of the world. China has signalled recently that peace, justice and a “win-win” form of development are the way forward. Whether the Western Ruling Class of parasites and psychopaths can change course is doubtful.
Will 2023 be seen as the Suez Moment for the US Empire and its vassals?