At the 2007 Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, German Chancellor and EU President Angela Merkel gave the opening address. Britain's (now former) Prime Minister Tony Blair, spoke of world trade, climate change and Africa. King Abdullah of Jordan opened the Forum on the Middle East with a rallying call to "end violence, to make peace, and to build the regional economic powerhouse of tomorrow." They, along with other world leaders, including those representing the newly emerging superpowers of China, Russia and India also attended and spoke at the 5-day conference.
The U.S., in years past, had always played a key role at this annual gathering of global business, political, and intellectual leaders, spearheading discussions on matters impacting the future of the world. But not a single Bush representative attended this year.
I hardly know what our president's intent was by not participating. Maybe he and his advisors thought that our absence would be crippling, or disruptive, or, at least conspicuous, but from all accounts the Forum carried on in grand form, shaping a vision for the world without official U.S. input. In short, we weren't missed.
Having just returned from Georgia (a post-Soviet republic) on a research trip for my next book, I noted that unlike most of the world that is eye-rolling at Bush's latest antics, the people of Georgia are doing their best to give our president and his administration every chance to redeem themselves. Like the Ukraine and the Baltics, Georgia is struggling to sustain its fragile democracy. As far as most Georgians are concerned, without U.S. support, they would be unable to keep Vladimir Putin, the formidable leader of Russia, off their border.
And they're probably correct.
Our position and prominence in the world has helped many countries in the past. And in arguing with my very intelligent Georgian friend who hesitates to utter an unkind word about George Bush and his destructive policies, I remind her that I'm hoping as much as she that America and its ideals prevail. But with this administration Americans have been outsmarted, outmaneuvered, and worse, we're being bled of the very power that my friend and her fellow Georgians count on to fend off Russia.
As demonstrated by our absence in Davos, the world is moving forward, but the cowboy mentality that still exists in this country is not unlike the very myopic mindset of the Islamic extremists. And in the end, backward is backward.
If, as Americans, we continue to enable a blind, archaic vision that we can change the world and its politics, unilaterally, then we will lose something even more precious than the lives of our young soldiers... we will lose our voice. Without that we are no help to ourselves, our allies, or Iraq -- and most assuredly the Georgians. And the world will move on ahead without us.
"The Senate Finance Committee earlier this month approved increasing the limit on the national debt to $9.82 trillion. That boost of $850 billion would be the fifth increase in the government's borrowing limit since President Bush took office in 2001."
CHC, you might want to think a little harder. Perhaps you could make a list of the countries we have helped versus the countries we have malignly, and with malice aforethought, hindered. See how that balances.
Our absence allowed work to get done.
I am embarrassed, and ashamed to know that the world would be a better place without us. However, I am in no real doubt about that. I consider it a fact.
We are as irrelevant to the rest of the world as Rome was irrelevant to the Gauls.
Dubai sold off our ports and now they are buying stock exchanges (including 30% of the London). They are getting smarter while we can't even figure out how to buy oil on the open market without threatening to blow up the world.
A round of applause for US, thanks very much.
What we need are (a) a progressive movement with courage and cohesion enough to hold our elected representatives accountable and (b) elected representatives willing to hold our criminal administration accountable. Complementary needs, obviously.
It's not looking good, though. With a few notable exceptions, the current Democratic leaders in congress are wusses. The leading Democratic candidate for the presidency just gave Washington lobbyists a full day of insider-access.
Think about it. The Bushes and the Clintons trade the presidency turn-about. Bill Clinton and the competent Bush are BFFs. Every current Republican candidate is crazy. The leading Democratic candidate is same old business as usual. We need a change. The system is broken. It needs to be fixed.
We don't need more evidence that the problem exists. We need a way to fix it.
I can see we are being prepped for the first Clinton wars. I wonder if it will be as expensive, irrelevant and uninteresting as the Iraq war, otherwise known as "the war for the hole in the ground."
Bush didn't send anybody to Davos because Sparta doesn't do teas with the other city states. We are the big tough guys who do war - at least until there is not a cent left in the state's coffers and the rest of the world has passed us and left our itsy-bitsy country in the irrelevant dust of history.
Please tell your Georgian friend to learn the first lesson of mature statehood: Get along with your neighbors. The US is a big power and always has been. We have a border 3000 miles long with Canada and NOT ONE SHOT HAS BEEN FIRED over any of the differences we have had with Canada over the border in 200 years. That is why we are the power and all the little shitty countries who come to us with their ridiculous problems will be nothing but bait for the military industrial complex that will happily grind Georgia into hamburger if you so insist.
The Clinton gang is ready to go.
The entire concept of military force on the planet is being rethought and we are proving ourselves, because of clinging to the old ways, as not being deserving of being included in the conversation. Or maybe it's just that BUSHCO makes it so readily apparent that we care nothing about the opinion of others, so others are left with no choice but to go on without us.
BUSHCO dictates, it doesn't engage. There was a time when it seemed like the world community was waiting for us to recognize the error of that approach, but now things happen without us and a new international reality is being formed. And, like with the crazy neighbor down the street, people just go about their business and hope that they and he can get through the day without suffering any harm.
Modern people want to work together, they want to play together, and they want to make progress for themselves and others together. If and when we have leadership that will approach the modern world on that basis, we will gladly be welcomed back. Until then, we can feel properly chagrined on the individual basis, and try to work even harder to try to get ourselves out of this mess.