Jonah Goldberg‘s latest article for National Review Online diagnoses a malady linked to a belief in the inevitability of American decline and Chinese ascendancy.
[W]e?re told one of the consequences of the new multipolar world will be that we won?t be able to do things unilaterally anymore. Anymore? What movie were they watching?
When we were supposedly cock of the walk, under Democratic and Republican presidents alike, anti-Americanism flourished. The United Nations refused to authorize the use of force to stop ethnic cleansing in the Balkans. Sure, we didn?t take no for an answer, but we didn?t go it alone. We joined with our NATO allies to put an end to the bloodshed.
During the Persian Gulf War, America had that ?grand coalition? that Sen. John Kerry talked about. During the second Iraq war, the ?coalition of the willing? was smaller, but we were hardly flying solo. U.S. leaders decried unilateralism, an odd sentiment for the undisputed global hegemon.
Another reigning clich? is that the sun is setting on us as it did on the British Empire. But what does that mean? China isn?t remotely powerful, influential, or rich enough to play the leading role of America, and we aren?t nearly so weak, ignorable, or poor as to deserve the supporting gig as 1950s Britain.
