Donald Trump Has Hastened America's Demise: Iran War Proves US Empire Is In Decline And He Is Most Unworthy Of Presidency

“American politics has become increasingly contorted and irrational. I think the thing to do is to realise that we are an empire in decline … and it will continue for another decade or two, until American power finally slips away.” Alfred McCoy is a renowned historian and is respected for his works. His words are not hollow or fragile. Trump should listen to him if he does not want to go down in history as a president who wanted to make America great again but presided over the demise of the empire. But alas, Trump has hastened the end and put it in the fast lane.

Every day, the Iran war proves that Trump is most unworthy of becoming the President of the greatest and mightiest nation ever in modern history, and it is better if Americans realise this sooner rather than later. I agree with Fareed Zakaria when he says that an empire collapses when “it expands beyond its periphery and ignores its core”. In his opinion, this is what happened with the British Empire, and this is what is happening with the USA. Maybe Trump diagnosed the malaise afflicting the USA correctly when he said that America had no business getting involved in other nations’ wars in the past. He promised to be a peacemaker, not a warmonger, but after assuming charge of the White House, provoked by his monstrous hubris, he has waged more wars than his predecessors, and now the USA is so badly battered by the Iran war that its global hegemony is in danger.

The Iran war is an irrational war. It is an illegal war. This war has made Trump a global villain, even in the eyes of his own well-wishers. Senior American columnists and foreign policy experts are using all kinds of unprintable words and phrases to denounce Trump and are praying that he leaves the presidency soon. One of his core supporters, Alex Jones, has gone to the extent of saying that he is “sick” and “unfit to be the president”. Renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs has called him a “malignant psychopath”. Thomas Friedman called him a “man-child playing with matches in a gas-filled room”. Instead of proving these gentlemen wrong, Trump is proving them right every day. Now he has used an expletive-laden social media post to taunt Iranian leaders.

Trump today is the most frustrated man. If he thought that in a few days he would demolish Iran, which would lead to regime change, and then he would proclaim a victory that no president could achieve in the past, that dream has been shattered, and he does not know what to do or how to come out of it. No doubt, today Iran is witnessing destruction of gigantic proportions due to relentless bombardment by both the USA and Israel, but it is refusing to surrender; rather, it has widened the theatre of war with a stroke of strategic genius that has turned the whole world into a terrible mess, and the entire world is cursing the USA. More than the material damage, the USA is suffering from a perception debacle; it has lost the credibility battle, its aura of invincibility, and its role as a global military power. America has lost on three counts, which are seriously threatening its image as a global superpower.

One, since 1945, for the first time its European allies have openly refused to cooperate with the USA in this war. Spain, France, Germany and Britain have told Trump that this war is America’s alone; America has to fight it out, and they are not coming to rescue it, which has prompted Trump to call them “cowards and paper tigers”. These nations have said that NATO was not created to wage war on other nations but to collectively defend themselves if attacked by one. Europe, even otherwise, was extremely unhappy with Trump due to the unnecessary tariff war waged on them by the USA and Trump’s threat to forcibly take over Greenland. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has compounded their anger towards Trump. The loss of Europe leaves the USA alone and will hurt it more in its game of hegemony vis-à-vis China.

Two, the USA has become suspect in the Middle East. It has miserably failed to provide any kind of military shield to its Middle Eastern allies. Today, due to the USA’s attack, all these countries are facing a barrage of Iranian missiles and drones; their civilian infrastructure and facilities are being destroyed, people are dying, and their future post-oil economic dreams are shattered. These countries are asking if the USA cannot provide them security, then what is the point of US military bases stationed in their lands? This understanding among these countries will lead to a loss of the USA’s strategic heft in the Middle East.

Three, the USA’s inability to open the Strait of Hormuz has put a serious question mark over its military technological superiority. Due to the closure, almost every country in the world is suffering. Even within the USA, the price of gasoline has gone beyond 4 dollars per gallon.

And above all, this war has opened Pandora’s box and busted the myth that a war can be won or lost because of hugely expensive and highly sophisticated war machines. After Ukraine, Iran has proved that million-dollar interceptors and so-called Iron Domes are no match for cheap drones. Poor and middle-sized countries, laced with strong willpower, can withstand the might of regional and global superpowers. It is this melting down of invincibility, like a piece of wax, which has done more damage to the USA’s prestige than Trump’s abusive rhetoric.

America was great because, in world history, it was the first to help lay down a rules-based system. When it decided to dismantle this system, its demise as a global empire became certain. It is also because its core is cracking; America has never been as divided as it is today, and the periphery has expanded beyond its moral limits. Thank you, President Trump, for “not making America great again”.

The writer is Co-Founder, SatyaHindi.com, and author of Hindu Rashtra. He tweets at @ashutosh83B