My Take | An America in decline will keep losing wars to weaker foes – including in Iran
When battles become a matter of choice rather than necessity or survival, US leaders have a preternatural ability to choose badly and undermine their own country
But of course the United States is in decline. That is so regardless of China’s rise or fall. It’s a domestic thing. Unfortunately, the rest of the world may long suffer the consequences. A declining superpower is a very dangerous beast. Exhibit No 1: Donald Trump and his senseless war on Iran.
The fact that he is president a second time tells you everything about democratic decay and institutional erosion in the US, declining trends he is happily pushing further along.
George W. Bush once cited an old saying incorrectly: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
The US electorate knew the kind of man Trump was – the most incompetent and corrupt president in modern American history. Still they voted for him, twice. The world shouldn’t just blame Trump, but those who picked him.
When asked by Bloomberg what the Saudi leadership thought of Trump, Bernard Haykel, a leading Middle East scholar at Princeton University, replied: “Let me put it to you very bluntly. A very well-connected Saudi – not MBS – told me: Americans can elect a monkey to the White House and we would have to like him.”