Victor Davis Hanson: Fiddling America Away

The United States has been written off as either crazy or irrelevant as it cannibalizes itself. Friends tremble at our sudden decline. Enemies rejoice. Neutrals make necessary adjustments to join the ascendant non-American side.

The symptoms of our decline abroad are evident. Joe Biden’s crippling oil sanctions on Russia are being ignored, and allies like Japan and India have no reason to comply since the US’s position is unclear. The talk of wind farms and green new deals is insufficient to fill gas tanks or heat homes, and claiming the Afghanistan mess as a success is not convincing anyone. Allies are concerned about the lack of leadership, with an impaired Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Senator John Fetterman, Energy Department’s Sam Brinton, and transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg all having their inadequacies. Allies fear that Washington just does not have the resources to cope with China in a looming proxy or head-to-head war. NATO member Turkey calls for an ecumenical Islamic effort against Israel. China talks openly of war with the United States and claims the Taiwan Strait as its territorial waters. Meanwhile, the US military’s obsession with wokeness will make the country vulnerable.

Oil producers, China, and countries such as Russia and Iran are planning for the end of the dollar as the international currency. The world sees the US as weak after its withdrawal from Afghanistan, a sentiment shared in the Islamic world’s West Bank and Syria. The US media is now a laughing stock with its recent failed predictions about Russian collusion and Russian disinformation.

The world is appalled at the US debt, now at $33 trillion, and the Biden administration’s blunders in printing money. Meanwhile, crime and disease are thriving in the cities, which are quickly becoming unsustainable. The US’s focus on the nonessential hides its existential problems.

The world is terrified and stunned at the result and is looking for solutions elsewhere.