In much talk about U.S. decline, there is an unmistakable touch of acridity in the rhetoric. It is an acridity that no doubt arises amongst self-pity or external compassion as well; one can't watch a dying thing and remain unmoved, but the acridity does indeed persist.
The boot that is pressed upon the neck of the world has a leg connected to it, and that leg has a body connected to it, a body that must be fed and maintained, and which has limited energy. And so as the feed runs dry and that boot begins to weaken, there is a countervailing force rising back to meet the boot, a force which among many things, bears the imprint of the boot's mirror image.
The fear and resent that the U.S. empire has generated throughout the world - and within itself - will ensure that not only does that empire fade into the murk as it goes, but that it will be plunged into that murk with, dare I say, "extreme prejudice." And so on and so forth.
