As we take its side, the US is losing global clout
DON’T look for it in leading Western media, but it’s happening: the decline of American power and influence in the world. And it’s the very heavy-handed proponents of Uncle Sam’s dominance who are partly to blame.
Having seen how the United States has acted in Europe over Ukraine and in the Middle East with Israel’s campaign to eradicate Hamas, big swaths of nations are turning away from the US-led West.
Two controversial events just last week look likely to accelerate America’s loss of global clout. One is former leader and survey-leading presidential hopeful Donald Trump recounting his remarks to a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit when the head of “a big country” asked hypothetically if America would defend it if its defense spending were below the targeted 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) or national economic output.
“I said: ‘You didn’t pay? You’re delinquent?’ ” Trump told a South Carolina rally. “‘No, I would not protect you; in fact, I would encourage them [adversaries] to do whatever they want. You gotta pay.’”
Guess what that does to Washington’s leadership in Europe. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said any suggestion that “allies will not defend each other undermines all of our security.” Based on 2023 NATO data, 13 of its 30 members spend below the 2 percent target.
This loss of confidence comes amid rising doubts and discord toward Washington over its actions in the Ukraine conflict. Sanctions against Russia jacked up global energy costs; Europe now buys gas at triple past prices or more, much of it from the US, now raking it in from both gas and weapons sales to the continent.
It didn’t help that a February 2023 report by veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersch blamed
Washington for the September 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream undersea pipelines for Russian gas exported to Europe (https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/08/how-americatook-out-the-nord-stream-pipeline/).
There is also the view, gaining more attention, that the Ukraine war was provoked by NATO expansion, as argued even by American stalwarts like Robert Kennedy Jr. and Jeffrey Sachs (“The War in Ukraine Was Provoked — and Why That Matters to Achieve Peace,” https://www.jeffsachs.org/ newspaper-articles/wgtgma5kj69pbpndjr4wf6aayhrszm).
Pope Francis himself quoted a former European head of state saying that Ukraine joining the alliance would bring “NATO barking at Russia’s gates.” This view probably got a boost from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s interview last week with popular commentator Tucker Carlson (https:// youtube.com/watch?v=yRNYBM it7Bw&si=aWRyPWp9LYr7IDJ3).
Perhaps the biggest sore points toward America among Europeans now are the abovementioned Nord Stream bombing and the failed US-British policy of prodding Ukraine to scrap a March 2022 peace deal and keep fighting with NATO arms and funds to “weaken Russia,” as US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin himself said.
Now, after two years of war and devastation for Ukraine and economic fallout for the world, half a million dead, Kyiv’s army nearing collapse, and tens of millions of Ukrainians displaced and mostly driven abroad, Russia is stronger militarily and economically.
Its 750,000 troops in and around Ukraine are the most powerful in Europe, and the economy has overtaken Germany to become No. 5 in the world, based on a World Bank calculation, boosted by petroleum revenues and defense spending (https://www.russiamatters.org/ blog/russia-worlds-5th-largesteconomy-gdp-ppp).
Plainly, if Washington is seen as compromising the interests of its allies, they would have less reason to follow its leadership. And if that