The dilemma being faced by the only superpower in the world is that power has drastically shifted. Superpower made sense when there were two of them--it took military giants to come to a nuclear stalemate. But as the Iraqi war is demonstrating every day (and as the Soviet Union discovered in Afghanistan in the 80s) determined insurgents can render a superpower impotent. And it's only going to get worse. Internet terrorists could one day cripple stock markets, banking systems, defense communications, air traffic, and any number of vital services in any country they desire to target. Terrorism is the main enemy at this point, but it cannot be fought by superpower in the first place. Terrorism isn't insanity. It grows out of social conditions that are well known: poverty, social oppression, dictatorship, and a void of meaning in the lives of ordinary people. America's superpower must be used to end those conditions. There is no other moral way to use our power, and if we continue to use it for military incursion and economic selfishness, the reality of being a superpower will turn into an illusion. At this moment the U.S. finds itself at a turning point. There is still time to become the world leader in disarmament, global warming, medical assistance to AIDS-infected countries, and overpopulation. It's gratifying that more people seem to realize that this change must occur. Will they become a majority? The odds are impossible to calculate. Historically, the U.S. has been a forward-looking country that doesn't wait for impending catastrophe to act. But against this we have the head-in-the-sand attitude of the current administration, which ordinary citizens are coaxed into believing. Inertia is comforting, and Americans will be extremely reluctant to make any change that might affect their high standard of living. So the decisions are being made for them. The right-wing backlash is keeping the myth of superpower going, as if the victory over communism has resulted in permanent hegemony. The mass media is keeping the illusions of inertia going by idealizing the consumer life and its empty values. But in truth power has shifted East already, and when crude oil reaches some future price ($80? $100?) and China builds as many cars as GM (in 2015? 2020?) a massive economic shift will force change. The U.S. is amassing a staggering debt while sending as much as a trillion dollars of value-added oil money to the Arab states per year. It would be so much better if the U.S. anticipated this global power shift and learned to lead it rather than preserve the hollow title of the world's only superpower. Thirty years ago Pres. Nixon said that the U.S. would turn into a "pitiful helpless giant" if he didn't invade Cambodia. The same danger looms now, and the reasons haven't changed all that much.
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