(Reuters)
The global financial crisis continues to chip away at America’s global power and influence. This past weekend, U.S. President George Bush bowed to European demands for a global economic summit soon after the U.S. elections in November. The president’s announcement, reported in the Wall Street Journal, “represents another concession to European leaders, who have already forced the U.S. hand on key design elements of the financial rescue effort that is currently underway around the world.” Having watched their economies tank, countries worldwide, particularly in Europe, are demanding more from the one nation they believe to be responsible for the mess.
According to Sunday’s Telegraph, “The emboldened Europeans signaled that the bloc was ready to ambush Mr. Bush and his successor, who is expected to attend the meeting, to impose a European vision for new financial market regulation.” The article continues,
European diplomats are hoping that a new U.S. president-elect might be more receptive to European style “social market” reforms, especially if the elections sweep Democrat candidate Barack Obama into power.
“We need a new global financial order,” European Union Commission President José Manuel Barroso said Saturday. “Those words,” the Christian Science Monitor says,
could send shivers through a White House that is suspicious of the current chorus of world leaders—European, Russian, and others less friendly to the U.S.—who are hailing the current economic crisis as a moment to usher in a multi-polar world.
America and its European “allies,” as we have written before, have drastically divergent strategies for solving the banking crisis. These differences will only sharpen in the months ahead. Ultimately, just one economic superpower will emerge from these bilateral attempts to solve the crisis—and it won’t be the United States.
Another article appearing in the Wall Street Journal on Friday takes a broader look at America’s diminished stature as the world’s lone superpower:
America’s historic economic shock in the past month came as its ability to project influence globally was already being challenged by emerging powers such as China and India, as well as oil-producing Russia and Iran.
The limits to U.S. power have become apparent in the Bush administration’s final year, as it has struggled to end Tehran’s nuclear program and failed to safeguard Georgian sovereignty during the Russian incursion in August.
According to the Journal, an intelligence assessment is being prepared for the next president that will outline America’s long-range position in the world and how its “dominance will be much diminished” between now and 2025.
In fact, America’s inglorious fall from power will happen much faster than that. But at least many commentators are now aware of America’s dramatic decline. So much, in fact, has been written along these lines in recent months that one might forget that theTrumpet.com, and the Plain Truth before us, has been predicting America’s downfall for decades. As our regular readers know, we have based our accurate projection on the sure word of Bible prophecy. •
..........................................................................................................................................................
