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Superman returns to Smallville
Asked recently by Gallup whether "the United States should mind its own business internationally and let other countries get along as best they can on their own", nearly half of Americans (46 per cent) said it should - compared with just 20 per cent 40 years ago. A clear majority of Americans (56 per cent) now say it was a mistake for the US to go into Iraq. Another poll, conducted earlier this year on behalf of National Geographic, found that 63 per cent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 could not find Iraq on a map, while 75 per cent could locate neither Israel nor Iran.Unfortunately for Mr Blair, the rest of the world has a diametrically different view of the USA. According to the latest Pew Global Attitudes survey, even we Britons regard the American presence in Iraq as a bigger danger to world peace than either Iran or North Korea. A third of British voters think the US invaded Iraq "to control Middle Eastern oil". A quarter think America aims "to dominate the world". In short, we - in common with most Europeans - increasingly regard the United States not as Superman but as Lex Luthor. Conventional wisdom has it that the American government is in a position to dictate to the Israeli government because of the latter's dependence on economic and military aid from the United States. Thus, when Condoleezza Rice opposed a joint Arab-European call for an immediate ceasefire at last week's Rome summit, most commentators interpreted this as an American green light for continued Israeli attacks on Lebanese targets. From both ends of the political spectrum I heard the same anti-American refrain: "If they really wanted to stop the fighting, they could." I asked a few people last week what share of Israel's GDP they thought was accounted for by American aid. The estimates went as high as 40 per cent. In fact, US aid to Israel was equivalent to just 3.2 per cent of Israel's gross domestic product in 2004, compared with 14 per cent in 1986. American aid today is much more important for Jordan (14 per cent of GDP) and the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza (5.6 per cent) than it is for Israel. It is therefore a complete fantasy to think that Washington can somehow force Tel Aviv to stop fighting when rockets fired by an Iranian-backed terrorist organisation are raining down daily on Israeli territory. The unpalatable truth about the present crisis in the Middle East is that it is a symptom of American weakness rather than American dominance. Consider, too, just how few troops the White House has at its disposal in the region as a whole. The United States has a population in excess of 290 million, of whom nearly 75 million are men aged between 15 and 49. Yet the number of military personnel on active duty in all overseas theatres is little more than a quarter of a million - roughly 0.1 per cent of the American population. When Britain was the global colossus in the 1880s, that figure was six times higher. It is all very well calling for yet another peacekeeping force. But the United States patently cannot man it. Like Superman, the US has vast potential strength. If it wants to be, it really can be "faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound". It is richer by far than the other countries in the world. It has mind-boggling firepower - enough to incinerate Iran in an afternoon. And yet, as Mr Blair understands, this Superman would really rather revert to being Clark Kent. Of course, the moral of Superman Returns is that when the messianic Man of Steel retreats into provincial isolation, Metropolis descends into anarchy. Tragically, the same fate may now lie in store for the Middle East as the American superpower heads back to Smallville. And Dean/Reid/Pelosi are setting the donks up to run on an isolationist platform in 2008. We may get a choice, not an echo. That would make for an interesting election. Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-07-30 |
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