RE: Trump threatens to send troops into Mexico to take care of the "bad hombres&q...
February 12, 2017 at 9:56 am
(This post was last modified: February 12, 2017 at 10:40 am by Anomalocaris.)
(February 11, 2017 at 8:09 pm)Wyrd of Gawd Wrote:(February 11, 2017 at 5:16 pm)Jörmungandr Wrote: It's going to take decades to rebuild our foreign relations with other countries once Trump gets done.If our relations with other countries was so great in the past why do we have all of the problems we have now from dealing with them?
If you think all the problems are bad now, then you are truly an ignorant moron.
(February 12, 2017 at 5:42 am)Alex K Wrote:(February 11, 2017 at 8:55 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: You do realize that Mexico is an ally of the US, right? Rather an important one, I'm given to understand.
Boru
And no, US trade with Mexico is not just salsa sauce and big hats...
No, there is also 290 billion dollars involved each year.
(February 11, 2017 at 5:16 pm)Jörmungandr Wrote: It's going to take decades to rebuild our foreign relations with other countries once Trump gets done.
Some relationships can never be rebuilt. They currently exist in maintenance mode, but if allowed to wither, means to rebuild them simply will never again be available to the US.
The key to continued US preeminence is simply the system of economic and political alliance the US, using its then vast preponderance of economic power, had built between 1945-1950. The fundamental reasons why the US was able to keep this alliance together and remain preeminent despite that fact that we are no longer so preponderant in power and wealth are 2:
1. the credibility of the US, gained from the fact that minor fluctuation on the peripheries not withstanding, when viewed from outside the US and above the propaganda of US domestic politics, the main US national objectives were always singularly clearly stated, and consistently pursued in an inclusive consultative manner through 70 years, regardless of which party is in the White House. If you make a deal with the US, the deal will be good regardless who will be in the White House after the next election or who will control which chamber of the congress.
2. The inclusiveness of American view of national interest. Because the US supported open trade, inclusive alliances, and observance of agreements, what is good for the US was also fundamentally good for the main contributors of world economic growth, regardless of where that is, hence the most dynamic countries in the world, regardless of whether it has disagreements with the US, has no fundamental interest in overthrowing the world order that had the US at its head.
Bush administration didn't openly renounce this stands, although its actions delivered some telling blows to this reputation and scored unprecedented self goals in terms of national interest. but most of the world proved willing to give the US the benefit of the doubt because in the grand scheme of things, the breach was not severe.
Trump openly and fundamentally renounced the most basic tenant of these stands. Unless trump dies very quickly, the basis for us global preeminence is gone. When the US first built this basis, it was the end of the Second world war, the US economy was 60% of the world economy and the US was able to set the course for a world prostrate from the war. The world had no choice but to give the US a chance to show it can be credible, the league of nation fiasco from 25 years before not withstanding, and that its goals were inclusive.
Today the American economy is but 20% of the world's. the most dynamic parts of the world is no longer the US. If America shows it can no longer be counted on to stand behind the system that made it preeminent today, it no longer has the power to convince the world to give it another chance later.
