Bankruptcy

 

Back at the time of the collapse of the USSR, some commentators claimed that the West had driven the Soviets into bankruptcy by escalating the arms race beyond their means while simultaneously making sure that the Afghan war continued to drain them. All that unsustainable spending, pundits insisted, had brought the rickety Soviet system crashing down into a heap.

It may be time to ask whether the tables have been turned upon us.

President Biden has asked Congress for additional monies for the DoD, the better to prepare ourselves for a stand-off with Russia in Europe. Congress, never particularly reticent when it comes to military pork for members’ districts, promptly insisted on giving him more than he asked for.

Biden’s proposed $813 billion Pentagon bill dwarfs all previous budgets for arms and warfare, and Republicans promptly attacked it as too little. While gummint programs often come in for the criticism that they simply throw money at a problem, there is a sudden 180 pivot when the same approach is used in this particular sphere.

I remember attending a Pentagon briefing in 1981 when the incoming Reagan Administration was boosting the budget numbers left behind by Carter. The briefing book literally had the Carter numbers crossed out and new percentage increases penciled in over each item, giving the strong impression that the only thought in anyone’s mind when they got the checkbook out was, “More!”

The never-never question of, “How are we to pay for all this?” remains off limits given that, by long-established custom, it is only asked of programs that improve people’s lives such as Social Security or transportation infrastructure. But under no circumstances must this query be put to those demanding new funds for weaponry.

However, it might be a relevant inquiry these days as we witness inflation reach double-digits and our trade deficit with China (tomorrow’s enemy!) explode.

Biden and his neocon war council seem confident that the United States can stage confrontations with large and small rival powers such as Russia, China, Iran (perhaps toss in India and Pakistan as well if need be), wage economic war upon them, and emerge unscathed.

Biden’s guys are happily ensconced in a virtual world dating to about 1992 (or perhaps 1946) in which the U.S. rules the four winds and the seven seas, dictates terms, and punishes renegades.

That world has come and gone, but if you believe that perceptions matter more than reality, the Golden Age can be summoned back with magical thinking and some good old Edward Bernays-style PR.

After all, Ronald Reagan made us “feel good about America” after the hardships of the 60s and 70s, and for four decades that has stood us in good stead. We recovered from the so-called Vietnam syndrome and returned to our rightful place as the beacon of freedom and democracy around the world, as witnessed by our efforts to promote both in Panama, El Salvador, Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. As long as we feel good, everything will work out fine.

Like Napoleon, we—or least Messrs. Blinken and Sullivan—believe in the historical mission of advancing democracy and free-market capitalism on the point of our nuclear-tipped lances. The neocons, true to their original Trotskyist roots, have led an ideological battle inspired by their revolutionary beliefs and backed up with the vast coercive resources of the world’s costliest military machine.

Whether it’s the best prepared or most competent remains to be seen as the neocon zealots push us ever closer to open battle with Russia on the European front. War ideas that were once far-fetched edge ever closer to reality as the Biden leadership shows no signs of discovering a reverse gear despite the evidence that Plan A hasn’t gone so well. We now face the prospect of a direct face-off.

But notwithstanding their crushing triumph in the information war, the U.S. and its western allies haven’t found a winning formula to reverse Russian advances in the field. Meanwhile, the economic war launched with vast confidence that the Russian economy (“a gas station masquerading as a country”—John McCain) would promptly collapse and force Putin to his septuagenarian knees has generated a boomerang effect that has only just begun to be felt here at home.

Americans are currently enthusiastic about the nobility of the Ukrainian cause and happy to display blue and yellow face-paint and donate to the widows-and-orphans charities springing up.

Of course, a couple of years back people were clapping out their windows for the heroic nurses tending to Covid patients, the same nurses who are now the object of hostile comments at the grocery store for their role in the “fake” epidemic and its inconvenient restrictions.

How long will Ukraine solidarity survive in the face of seven-dollar-a-gallon gas? Or apples suddenly costing $3 a pound instead of $1.75?

No doubt all we’ll need is tighter restrictions on “pro-Russian” propaganda on Twitter and YouTube to revive that fighting spirit of sacrifice. After all, the defense of Ukrainian agency and the preservation of its options for NATO membership are certainly worth canceling that family vacation or moving into a two-room flat.

Given that the US of A is the greatest country on earth with an awesome fighting force and the best of everything, we’ll be up to the challenges facing us once they’re explained by credible leaders like Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Mitch McConnell, and Donald Trump. 

The American economy dwarfs most others and certainly will respond with resilience even though its captains of industry long ago packed up the nation’s factories and shipped them to Mexico, Bangladesh, and China. But we have Facebook, Google, and many iProducts and dozens of billionaires each worth ten times the net worth of ancient Mesopotamia. We are indestructible.

Nothing can go wrong, and all will be well.